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The employee rights advocates at Haeggquist & Eck have sued La Jolla-based Axos Bank after it fired a single mother of four who requested to work from home during the COVID-19 pandemic.Taneasha Newsome had worked for Axos Bank for nine years and, like many Americans, found herself working remotely from home while managing four children whose schools were shut down earlier this spring as a result of COVID-19. One of her children is autistic, and the shutdown of local schools meant Ms. Newsome was also required to continue all necessary services and therapy appointments for her child while sheltering in place at home.Axos installed a tracking software to monitor employees who were working from home, but the lawsuit alleges that Axos knew the program was unable to track certain aspects of employees’ work, leading to underreporting of actual hours worked.The company demanded that all employees return to full-time, in-office work by May 1, 2020 – at a time when local schools were still shut down. When Ms. Newsom requested an accommodation to continue working from home to care for her children – including her disabled child – Axos Bank fired her, the lawsuit alleges. The complaint alleges associational disability discrimination and wrongful termination, failure to provide reasonable accommodations, and racial discrimination.The lawsuit is pending in the United States District Court for the Southern District of California, in San Diego.
Click here to watch 10News’ coverage of the case. Click here to read about the case in the San Diego Union-Tribune.If you have been fired after requesting an accommodation from your employer, click here or call (619) 342-8000 to contact the employment attorneys at Haeggquist & Eck.
