A former employee filed a complaint in the Southern District of Indiana against Bartholomew County Public Hospital doing business as Columbus Regional Health (CRH) for alleged gender and age discrimination.
According to Wednesday’s complaint, the hospital is located in Indiana, and has more than 500 employees. The complaint states that the plaintiff started to work at the hospital in 1985 in the Radiology Department. The plaintiff’s next position in the department was as a Clinical Instructor for the Radiology Program at CRH, which at the time was operated by Ivy Tech, but in 1992, CRH started its own program whereby the plaintiff was selected to set up and run CRH’s radiology school program. From 1993 to 2021, the plaintiff was CRH’s Radiology Program Director. The complaint highlights the purported success and accreditation of the program under the plaintiff’s direction.
As stated in the complaint, the plaintiff’s supervisor made a trial floating staffing model permanent, however, when the accreditation organization Joint Review Committee on Education in Radiologic Technology (JRCERT) visited after these changes were made permanent, the program was cited for student supervision violations.
The plaintiff noted that in January 2019 she reported to CRH Human Resources “that she was being subjected to harassing treatment based on her gender and age.” However, according to the complaint, CRH did not take any action on the plaintiff’s complaint to HR reporting this conduct. The plaintiff stated that this behavior continued into late 2020, whereupon HR told the plaintiff to complete an internal complaint. Furthermore, the plaintiff discussed her complaint with an HR representative, claiming “that she felt extremely uncomfortable, and upset being treated that way in the workplace as a woman and as an older person” and was afraid she would lose her job.
However, the plaintiff asserted that HR informed her that because the offending employee (the plaintiff’s supervisor) “had not committed a violation within a 5-day period immediately preceding the filing of her complaint, there was nothing CRH could do.” Accordingly, the HR representative told the plaintiff to come back the next time the other employee “acted in a hostile and inappropriate manner.” Again, the plaintiff contended that CRH did not act on her complaint.
According to the complaint, in March 2021, the plaintiff was asked to go to a meeting to discuss the next steps in the JRCERT re-accreditation process, however, her boss (the offending employee) and an HR representative were there to give her a review feedback form and to fire her. The plaintiff asserted that she “was an exemplary employee and had no disciplinary issues in the first three and a half decades of her employment with CRH.” The plaintiff noted that on the review feedback form it states that her “‘disciplinary issues’ began shortly after her 2019 report of being subjected to harassment.” The plaintiff alleged that CRH fired her “in retaliation of her filing internal discrimination complaints.”
The plaintiff claims violations of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. She seeks a jury trial, reinstatement of employment or an amount of front pay, as well as lost compensation and interest on the lost compensation, value of lost benefits and related interest, compensatory and punitive damages of $300,000, and attorney’s fees.
The plaintiff is represented by Stephenson Rife LLP.
