Florida company pays $85,000 to employee fired after his recovery from an induced coma
An Equal Employment Opportunity Commission disability discrimination lawsuit against Rockledge company Pirtek ended with Pirtek admitting no wrong, but paying $85,000 in alleged back pay and compensatory damages.
That money went to Michael Rossiello, who cut hydraulic hoses in Pirtek’s warehouse until the company cut him loose in March 2016 after Rossiello survived a hospital stay involving pancreatitis, pneumonia and an induced coma.
The EEOC claimed Rossiello, 57 at the time, had been cleared medically to return to work, but was discriminated against because Pirtek saw him as disabled. Pirtek says in the consent decree that it fired Rossiello for “legitimate, non-discriminatory reasons.”
Still, Pirtek’s paying $30,000 in alleged back pay and $55,000 in alleged compensatory damages.
Hospital stay and the alleged discrimination
The EEOC’s lawsuit says Rossiello had been working at Pirtek just a week short of 10 years when he was hospitalized Dec. 26, 2015 with what was eventually diagnosed as pneumonia, pancreatitis and acute respiratory distress syndrome.
“Rossieloo went on a respirator and in an induced coma for 16 or 17 days,” the lawsuit says.
While hospitalized, the lawsuit says, a friend put in paperwork so Rosiello could get short-term disability pay and Rossiello kept Pirtek updated. That included Rossiello telling his direct supervisor near the end of January 2016 that though he was doing much better, he would need rehabilitation to reverse muscle deterioration.
The lawsuit said that supervisor “told Rossiello to do whatever was necessary to get better.”
During a February 2016 conversation with Pirtek’s supply chain manager, the lawsuit says, Rossiello said he’d be able to be back at work March 1.
“Although Rossiello was cleared to return to work without restrictions as of March 1, 2016, Pirtek regarded him as disabled and did not allow him to return to work,” the lawsuit said. “Specifically, [Pirtek’s supply chain manager] directed Rossiello to stay out on leave and to exhaust the balance of his paid short-term disability leave. At the time, Rossiello had approximately three weeks of paid short-term disability leave remaining.”
But when summoned into the office on March 4, Rossiello was fired. The lawsuit said the supply chain manager rejected a physician’s letter clearing Rossiello’s return to all work tasks or the idea of switching Rossiello to another job.
The manager, the lawsuit said, “rejected Rossiello’s proposal and stated that Pirtek was afraid that Rossiello would get injured on the job and receive worker’s compensation. He further stated that Rossiello was a ‘liability.’”
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