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| A battle against cancer, a fight for her job |
| By pennlive.com - AP |
| Published: 05/31/2012 |
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SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Hours after a needle fed another round of toxic chemotherapy into her veins, Sandra Knott wondered aloud whether she would survive to don the crisp uniform of a state corrections officer again. “I can’t die before I win this,” she said on a recent afternoon, her face pale, her head covered by a polka dotted scarf. For the past two years, Knott has been fighting parallel battles: metastatic cancer, and her supervisors at New Folsom prison, where she has been a corrections officer for 25 years. The medical fight continues. But it looks as though Knott has succeeded in her effort to keep her job even as she fights Stage 4 breast cancer. Earlier this month she and her lawyer, Jill Telfer, reached a settlement with the state Department of Corrections. The agreement awards Knott damages of nearly $1 million and mandates that the agency create a statewide policy to accommodate employees with medical conditions or disabilities that interfere with their ability to do their jobs. Knott’s story is a powerful illustration of the dilemma that employers face when a worker becomes desperately ill. If an employee cannot perform her regular duties, what obligation does a company or agency have to find another place for her, with the same perks and pay? It is an area covered under California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act. Under the law, employers cannot discriminate against someone “in compensation or in terms, conditions or privileges of employment” based on a medical condition. But the measure does allow employers to discharge someone who “is unable to perform his or her essential duties,” even with accommodations. “Unfortunately these kinds of cases happen a lot,” said Eugene Lee, a Los Angeles lawyer who blogs about employment law. “The cancer cases are especially tragic, because these are people who may have a limited time on the planet. They don’t want to spend whatever time they have left litigating.” The corrections department declined to discuss the Knott settlement, which spokeswoman Terry Thornton described as tentative. But legal papers lay out the agency’s position. Telfer has argued that the Fair Employment and Housing Act requires the department to provide Knott with “reasonable accommodation” by giving her a less strenuous position during treatment, allowing her to keep her corrections officer status and seniority and work toward retirement. The department, which like most state agencies is facing a budget crunch, said it had no obligation to do so for a corrections officer with cancer who is unable to perform “essential functions” of the job. As the case dragged on, Knott said, she became convinced that the agency was deliberately delaying resolution in hopes that she would die, thereby avoiding a costly settlement. The agency insisted it was working hard to come up with a plan that was fair to both Knott and the corrections department. Some fine points of the agreement have yet to be worked out, but Knott said she can see the finish line. “I’m ecstatic, for myself and for all of the other cancer patients out there,” she said, sitting in her lawyer’s office, her eyes welling up. “I just want to get back to work.” Read More. |
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