Los Angeles, CA – March 8, 2022 – Mike Arias of Arias Sanguinetti Wang & Team and Griselda Rodriguez of G-Rod Law, A.P.C. settled a major workplace harassment, disability harassment, and wrongful termination case against a Fortune 500 company.
The case was settled on behalf of a woman who was a low-wage worker alleging that she was forced to perform tasks which directly violated her physical limitations, was passed over for easier work, was discriminated against because of her age, and was ultimately wrongfully terminated due to her disability.
“This result, for a truly amazing client, will go a long way toward helping her with future expenses, which are many due to her disability,” said Mike Arias. “This woman lived paycheck-to-paycheck and suffered obvious discrimination because of her condition and her age. Her previous employer, which boasts more than $1 billion in revenue every year, took advantage of her, and its supervisors should be ashamed for putting a loyal, hardworking woman through such a tragic situation.”
Arias Sanguinetti initially represented the client but, as they had done before, joined forces shortly afterwards with Ms. Rodriquez. After a hard-fought legal battle, they were able to obtain a $1.5 Million settlement for her.
“Griselda is a tremendous attorney who in a short time has already established herself as a great trial lawyer,” said Mr. Arias.
The plaintiff worked at the company for more than a decade and a half, performing her job in an exemplary manner. In 2003 she suffered a serious shoulder injury at work which caused recurring pain in her shoulder and back. Afterwards, she was regularly forced to work harder by her supervisors to increase her work output and was harassed by supervisors due to her age and disability, in spite of having received doctor’s notes stating her physical limitations.
She routinely tried to get assigned different work responsibilities that would be more in line with her capabilities, but she was denied time and again. The continued harassment caused her to become injured after she was assigned work duties which her supervisors knew she was unable to perform.
The billion-dollar corporation then introduced a bonus structure that incentivized production in a way that limited her hourly pay. In fact, this new bonus structure would limit the pay of all older workers. She continued to get medical treatment for her injuries in the hopes of feeling less pain and being able to perform her work duties, but still the harassment continued.
She was then written up for such minor offenses as arriving 1-minute late to her next work area, and she alleges that she was physically attacked by coworkers as well.
In 2016, after 17 years of working for the company, she was wrongfully terminated after being falsely accused of “over producing” and was not given the opportunity to defend herse