Phlebotomist's HIV Discrimination Claim Against Hospital Ruled Unfounded
Legal Eagle Eye Newsletter for the Nursing Profession
June 1996
The hospital was justified reassigning this employee from direct patient contact to clerical duties, due to her persistent disregard of hospital policies which required all persons drawing blood to wear gloves on both hands. The court was convinced this policy was being and had been uniformly enforced by the hospital toward all employees who drew blood.
A hospital phlebotomist filed a charge of employment discrimination with the state department of human rights. She filed this charge when she was reassigned from her duties as a phlebotomist drawing blood from patients to a clerical position in the hospital’s billing office. She claimed the hospital reassigned her to duties not involving direct patient contact because she was HIV positive, which, she asserted, amounted to illegal disability discrimination in employment.
The state department of human rights ruled in favor of the hospital, and the employee filed an appeal. The New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division, upheld the department’s decision. According to the court, although unjustified adverse action against an HIV-positive employee is illegal, there was no disability discrimination in this particular case. Friedel vs. New York State Division of Human Rights, 632 N.Y.S. 2d 520 (A.D., 1995).