Deaf worker accuses St. Vincent in suit

EEOC supports legal complaint that woman harassed by supervisor

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, in what an attorney for the agency called a rare action, has filed a federal lawsuit against Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center, accusing it of discriminating against a former worker who is deaf.

The wrongful termination complaint, filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court for New Mexico on behalf of Asheley Coriz, alleges she was harassed by a supervisor and that the hospital failed to give her accommodations, such as an American Sign Language translator, and then fired her in retaliation for her complaints.

According to the suit, Coriz began working at Christus St. Vincent in February 2018 as a histology technician, a job that involves preparing and studying slides of tissue samples under microscopes.

Because of her disability, she was provided an ASL interpreter for a daylong orientation process.

After she began working at the hospital, however, the suit alleges, Coriz, an experienced histology technician, was given no accommodations and had to “remind her supervisor repeatedly to face her” when giving instructions in the lab.

She asked him to let her observe procedures or during training or to write them down for her.

Instead, the suit says, he berated her to point of tears, and after she complained about the harassment, she was given a different position.

The hospital fired her about two months after she began working there, accusing her of “poor work performance,” the suit says.

Arturo Delgado, a spokesman for Christus St. Vincent, said he could not comment on the complaint.

“Christus St. Vincent also adheres to the Americans with Disability Act and is committed to providing reasonable accommodations for employees with disabilities,” Delgado said in a statement.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, a federal agency tasked with protecting the civil rights of employees in the workplace, sent a letter to the hospital July 13, saying it had found “reasonable cause” for violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act and offered to hold an informal mediation, according to the suit.

Two weeks later, on July 30, the agency issued a notice to the hospital saying an acceptable agreement had not been reached.

Coriz’s suit is one of few the agency has filed in recent years, said Jeffery Lee, a senior trial lawyer for the EEOC.

The agency received more than 1,500 complaints of discrimination last year, he said, but most of them were resolved outside court or were dismissed by the commission.

“It’s rare for a lawsuit to be filed,” Lee said. “Our office filed a total of four lawsuits last year and two this year.”

According to Coriz’s lawsuit — which also names as a defendant the national Christus Health network, a hospital co-owner — her supervisor frequently yelled and swore at her, and told her, “I’m tired of telling you the same thing.”

When she asked her supervisor’s boss to end the harassment, her suit says, he instead transferred her to the position of histology assistant, which requires extensive phone use. Coriz owned a video-relay phone, which provides ASL interpretation via video chat, and asked the hospital to hook her phone into its network April 4, the suit says.

But that didn’t happen. Coriz met with Christus St. Vincent’s Human Resources Department on April 16 to discuss the phone issue and her previous complaints about the supervisor’s behavior.

That same day, the suit says, she was scheduled to meet with managers and develop a “work success plan,” but the meeting was canceled when Coriz asked for an ASL interpreter to be present.

The following day, she was put on paid administrative leave, the suit says, and two days later, she was fired.

Coriz is seeking back pay, compensation for medical expenses and emotional pain, and punitive damages from the hospital.