Night Blindness: Transfer To P.M. Shift Seen As Discrimination.
Legal Eagle Eye Newsletter for the Nursing Profession
September 2015
A nurse was hired at the nursing home at age fifty-three and began working the p.m. shift.
Twelve years later she got a transfer from the p.m. shift to the a.m. shift because of a problem with driving at night.
Two years later, over her protests, the nurse was moved back to the p.m. shift.
Several months later she was terminated, at age sixty-eight, only days after the nurse’s lawyer faxed the nursing home a copy of the nurse’s complaint to the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) alleging that her transfer back to the p.m. shift was discriminatory.
The US District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee declined to grant the nursing home a summary judgment of dismissal. The nurse will get her day in court to prove her case to a jury.
Legal precedents have established night blindness as a disability. The nurse was an employee with a disability. Her employer has the burden of proof to show a legitimate reason for her termination.
The nurse claimed she heard that the nursing home wanted a younger nurse on duty during the day allegedly to impress inspectors who were due at the facility.
As to her allegation of retaliation, the nurse was terminated just four days after the nursing home learned of her EEOC complaint. What the courts call “temporal proximity” makes a strong case for a retaliatory motive. Harris v. Care, 2015 WL 4662441 (E.D. Tenn., August 5, 2015).
Additional references from nursinglaw.com
http://www.nursinglaw.com/workshifts.htm
http://www.nursinglaw.com/stress-depression-disability-discrimination.htm
http://www.nursinglaw.com/brain-tumor-disability-nurse.htm