‘This is a pattern.’ 4 plaintiffs sue CSU Stanislaus, alleging discrimination, retaliation
Four former California State University, Stanislaus, employees are individually suing the school, alleging harassment and discrimination based on gender, pregnancy, disability and/or race, among other claims.
In one case, the university provided two and a half years of paid leave — an estimated $272,000 — to IT consultant Carla Rounds in an effort to convince her to resign and avoid a lawsuit, said lawyer Tom Dimitre, who is representing all the plaintiffs.
In the case of benefits leave manager Meshell Alcantar, a federal investigation by the Department of Labor fined the university for violating her rights as a pregnant woman.
“Unfortunately for Stanislaus, this is a pattern,” said Dimitre. Alcantar, Rounds and Karlha Davies argue in separate cases that the university fired them or placed them on leave out of bias and spite.
Former groundskeeper Sen Saephanh argues that his boss’s discriminatory behavior created an unsafe working environment that ultimately led to a debilitating chainsaw accident.
CSU Stanislaus officials deny all of the allegations, spokeswoman Kristina Stamper said.
University claims ‘performance issues’
In June 2018, Alcantar was working in the university’s human resources department when she informed her boss she was pregnant and expected to deliver in the fall, according to the lawsuit. On Sept. 6, Alcantar said, her department threw her a baby shower, and on Sept. 10, she applied for medical leave that she intended to take when the baby was due in November, the lawsuit explains.
Three weeks after she applied for leave, Alcantar’s doctor advised her to stop working and go on bed rest because her pregnancy was deemed “high risk.” The same day, the lawsuit says, her boss fired her.
“Instead of being able to retire there as I had dreamed, the university violated my rights, fabricated negative information and fired me — even though I was pregnant,” Alcantar said.
The irony, she said, is that she was in part responsible for administering leave on behalf of the university and understood the law well. She called on the U.S. Department of Labor to investigate the university for violating the Federal Medical Leave Act (FMLA), and she is suing the university in Stanislaus County Superior Court for harassment and retaliation, among other claims.
“We understand that the timing does not look good, but the basis for her termination did not have to do with her request for FMLA,” said Thy Monaco, general counsel for the university, according to documents obtained from the Department of Labor.
Alcantar’s managers, Rebekah Temple and Julie Johnson, told the Department of Labor she was fired for “performance issues.”
“However, there are no records substantiating poor performance nor conduct issues,” the Department of Labor said in its report. According to the lawsuit, Alcantar received two promotions and five pay raises in just over two years of employment at CSU Stanislaus.
The Department of Labor concluded that the university had discriminated against her for requesting leave. After an internal settlement negotiation, the university paid Alcantar $31,199.49.
Stamper said the university resolved the Department of Labor’s concerns “before any formal finding was issued.”
Alcantar said her treatment at the university affected her unborn daughter’s health, too. “During my most stressful period, I was put on quite a few meds to reduce my blood pressure and to keep my body physically able to retain the baby as long as I did,” she said. Her daughter was born premature, five weeks after she was fired.
Relationships sour, position cut
In 2019, Davies joined CSU Stanislaus as the director of development. But two days after starting the job, she stepped into the role of interim director of alumni engagement. In the lawsuit, Davies, who is Latina and a CSU Stanislaus alumna, says she wanted the university to consider ways to make its Alumni Advisory Council, Foundation Board, donors and volunteers more reflective of the student population, which was 52% Latino at the time.
Those efforts caused her relationships with university leadership to slowly deteriorate, the lawsuit alleges. In January, she said the university told her it planned to eliminate her position. Administrators asked her to resign and offered six months of severance pay on the condition that she waive her right to sue. She declined to resign or take the severance pay and was fired soon after. All three women of color on the university’s alumni council subsequently resigned in protest, according to the lawsuit.
Stamper said, “The university disagrees with the assertions made by Mrs. Davies” and “is committed to empowering its employees and creating opportunity for all.”
Like Davies, Rounds said in her lawsuit that she was put on paid administrative leave in part because she spoke out about issues within the university. She alleges that she was a “whistleblower” who raised concerns about data privacy violations regarding medical information within her department.
“She was placed on paid administrative leave to investigate disruptive behavior in the workplace,” said Stamper. “Ms. Rounds returned from paid administrative leave and chose to resign from her position.”
Neither investigation found any misconduct, said Dimitre. Rounds said the investigations created a level of stress and anxiety that propelled her to quit after two and a half years of paid administrative leave.
Rounds’ case now sits in federal court.
MilIions in alleged ‘damages’
In the last case, Saephanh said his boss, Hugo Hernandez, imposed harsh rules on him because Saephanh was the only person of Asian descent. According to the lawsuit, Hernandez asked Saephanh to get a doctor’s note every time he used the bathroom outside of break time.
Later, Hernandez asked Saephanh to cut down a limb high on a tree, though the task was outside his job description. While Saephanh was doing the job, the chainsaw he was using cut his left hand, permanently disabling him.
“After Mr. Saephanh sustained an injury while working, he was encouraged to apply for different positions but instead chose to retire,” Stamper said.
Dimitre said Saephanh wasn’t qualified for those alternative jobs. His case is in Stanislaus Superior Court, like those of Alcantar and Davies.
“The best we can usually do is get individual damages for each employee who was either fired or forced out,” he said.
He is requesting a total of $3.8 million in damages across all four cases.
For Davies, the lawsuit is about exposing what she calls the “hypocrisy” of the university’s stated commitment to equity, compared to its treatment of women of color.
Alcantar echoed Davis and added her own experience. She was inspired to join CSU Stanislaus in part because of the university president, Ellen Junn, who is Asian American like her and who introduced changes to promote equity at the university.
Alcantar said the two had a personal relationship and she told Junn about the pregnancy before mentioning it to her supervisor.
Now, she feels duped, she said. “If you’re going to speak out for women and equality, then you need to stand behind it,” she said. After she was fired, Alcantar reached out to Junn. She received no response. University spokesperson Stamper denied that the two had a personal relationship.
