On May 7, 2024, Professor
Jan Ramjerdi filed a class action
complaint against the City University of New
York ("CUNY"), Queensborough Community
College, the City of New
York, and additional defendants, alleging a policy, pattern,
and/or practice of: (1) illegal denials of mental health
disability-based fully remote work accommodation requests by
full-time faculty; (2) illegal retaliation against faculty who made
such requests; and (3) illegal FMLA denials, among other
alleged discriminatory and retaliatory practices.
QUEENS,
N.Y., May 13, 2024 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ --
Plaintiff Professor Jan Ramjerdi ("Plaintiff") has served as a
tenured Associate Professor of English at Queensborough Community College ("QCC") since
September 1, 2009, and has taught at
QCC since 2003.
Plaintiff alleges that
Defendants repeatedly illegally denied Plaintiff's, and a class of
full-time faculty members', requests for mental health
disability-based fully remote work accommodations because of the
70/30 In-Person/Remote policy.
On May 7, 2024, Plaintiff filed a
class action complaint against the City
of New York ("NYC"), the City
University of New York ("CUNY"), QCC, CUNY Chancellor Félix
V. Matos Rodríguez (in his official capacity), QCC President
Christine Mangino, QCC Human
Resources Director Martha
Aspromatis, QCC Human Resources Director for Benefits
Ysabel Macea, QCC ADA Compliance
Coordinator/Assistant Vice President for Equity, Inclusion, and
Belonging Amaris Matos, and former
QCC Interim Executive Director for Human Resources Sangeeta Noel (collectively, "Defendants").
The class action complaint's allegations include an
alleged policy, pattern, and/or practice of: (1)
illegal denials of mental health disability-based fully remote work
accommodation requests by full-time faculty; (2) illegal denials of
requests for FMLA leave by full-time faculty based on a pending
disability-based accommodation request and/or the permanent nature
of the disability or serious health condition; (3) retaliation
against full-time faculty for requesting disability-based fully
remote work accommodations and/or FMLA leave; (4) an illegal
medical separation policy that permitted the separation of
full-time faculty without consideration or evaluation of their
entitlement to a disability-based reasonable accommodation; and (5)
illegal provision of unprotected "general accommodations" of fully
remote work instead of protected disability-based accommodations,
among other challenged practices alleged to violate
the Rehabilitation Act, FMLA, and/or New York City Human Rights Law
("NYCHRL").
The class action complaint alleges that all, or
almost all, CUNY faculty taught fully remotely during the COVID-19
pandemic, from mid-March 2020 through
the spring 2021 semester (approximately three academic semesters).
The class action complaint additionally alleges that,
for the spring 2022 semester, CUNY announced a 70/30
In-Person/Remote policy requiring 70% in-person courses and 30%
remote courses, including that, "[a]side from unusual
circumstances, all full-time faculty members should teach at least
one in-person course on campus." Plaintiff alleges
that Defendants repeatedly illegally denied Plaintiff's, and a
class of full-time faculty members', requests for mental health
disability-based fully remote work accommodations because of the
70/30 In-Person/Remote policy.
The class action complaint further alleges that,
after initially filing pretextual and/or retaliatory disciplinary
charges against Plaintiff, NYC, CUNY, and/or QCC applied their
medical separation policy to medically separate Plaintiff in
furtherance of their retaliation and/or discrimination. The class
action complaint alleges that they did so by
circularly relying on the very mental health disabilities that
Plaintiff had sought a fully remote work accommodation and FMLA
leave to address, as the primary basis for Plaintiff's medical
separation. The class action complaint alleges that
this medical separation policy was a policy, practice, and/or
standard operating procedure of NYC, CUNY, and/or QCC of failure to
accommodate disabilities, retaliation for requesting a fully remote
work accommodations and/or FMLA leave, and interference with
disability and/or FMLA rights.
The class action complaint additionally alleges
disparate impact violations, violations of FMLA notice rights, and
Rehabilitation Act medical inquiry violations.
The fifteen-count class action complaint seeks, from some or all
Defendants, back pay, front pay and/or reinstatement, compensatory
damages, nominal damages, actual damages, liquidated damages,
declaratory relief, injunctive relief, as well as punitive damages
against the QCC individual defendants sued in their individual
capacities.
Plaintiff's requested class-wide injunctive relief seeks an
injunction: (1) prospectively exempting disability-based fully
remote work requests from the 70/30 In-Person/Remote Policy; (2)
requiring the creation and funding of an independent office and/or
ombudsman to objectively evaluate all disability-based remote work
requests and FMLA leave requests; (3) requiring the re-evaluation
of all disability-based remote work requests and FMLA leave
requests within the last three years by an independent office
and/or ombudsman; (4) reinstatement of all class members terminated
or medically separated because of an illegal denial of a
disability-based fully remote work accommodation and/or FMLA leave
request; and (5) reclassification of time illegally categorized as
an unauthorized absence as a protected authorized absence, under
the Rehabilitation Act, FMLA and/or NYCHRL.
The case is Ramjerdi v. The City of
New York, et al., No. 1:24-cv-03380-NGG-RML and is before
U.S. District Judge Nicholas G.
Garaufis and Magistrate Judge Robert
M. Levy in the United
States District Court for the Eastern District of
New York.
Media Contact
Cyrus Dugger, The Dugger Law
Firm, PLLC, 1 (646) 560 3208, cd@theduggerlawfirm.com,
https://www.theduggerlawfirm.com/
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