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A resignation later leads to a workplace discrimination claim

On Behalf of | Aug 17, 2015 | Employment Disputes |

To keep things light, many Texas workers will have fun and share jokes with their supervisors. When these jokes are taken seriously and used as a pretext to get employees fired, things are not quite so funny anymore. A woman from another state has filed a workplace discrimination claim in a circuit court alleging that she lost her job unjustly and was replaced with someone younger.

The plaintiff worked for a health care service provider and claims that she was respected among her peers and had a satisfactory performance record. Due to her medical issues, she unfortunately had to take time away from her job on occasion. After about 20 years of service, she alleges that she suffered harassment from her superiors. She would jest that she wanted to quit her job, but really could not afford to do so.

The woman alleges that all of the workers were being asked to take unpaid leaves so that payroll costs would be lowered because there were fewer patients. When the plaintiff was asked if she would consent to taking this time off, she accepted. In jest, the plaintiff asked her younger supervisor if she wanted her resignation also. Joking back, her supervisor apparently said yes.

Continuing on with the joke, the plaintiff wrote a letter of resignation, gave it to her supervisor and left for the day. She later allegedly called her supervisor and asked her to get rid of the letter, but was told it was too late and her resignation was accepted so she would need to retire. The plaintiff avows she was replaced with a younger employee, and she filed a workplace discrimination claim against her employer. Discrimination based on any protected status is clearly against the law and Texas workers who believe they have been wronged in such a manner have every right to hold their employers accountable for their actions.

Source: wvrecord.com, “Woman accuses Healthsouth Corporation of age discrimination“, Kyla Asbury, Aug. 12, 2015

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