Five probation officers with the Los Angeles County Probation Department have filed a joint class-action lawsuit claiming discrimination on the basis of medical disability and failure to provide reasonable accommodations in violation of the Fair Employment and Housing Act.
The Peter Law Group filed the case in the Los Angeles Superior Court on March 12 in response to a directive issued by Chief Probation Officer Guillermo Viera Rosa on Feb. 22 mandating field probation officers to report to juvenile halls instead of their regular work locations.
The deployment mandate also included field officers, on light duty and with medical restrictions, and if they didn’t report, the department would send them home on their own time.
According to a published job description, the position is classified as light-duty.
“The position isn’t arduous yet and if it is, probation officers should be entitled to the same medical disability retirement option given to members of police departments,” said one probation officer on condition of anonymity.
The department rescinded the deployment mandate related to staff with restrictions or on light duty three days after the lawsuit was filed.
The law firm successfully defended former correctional officers who were denied medical accommodations in 2018 despite the California Department of Corrections having a policy that allowed pregnant staff who worked inside state prisons to move to safer positions.
A pregnant woman was awarded close to $2 million in damages after she fell on the job and lost her unborn baby.
Nearly 300 women, many of whom still work for CDCR, are part of a civil lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court that accuses the agency of denying them reasonable accommodation during their pregnancies.
They maintained there were other positions within the facilities that employees with medical restrictions could work but weren’t allowed to do so.
Field officers with the probation department maintain there are also positions within the department that are suitable for them to continue doing their jobs but are being forced back into the halls due to the low staffing levels.
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