NEW YORK (1010 WINS) — A former Nassau County Executive staffer who was diagnosed with cancer claims she was treated unfairly and was fired for requesting to work from home due to her illness, according to a lawsuit filed earlier this month.
Leslie Rothschild, who worked as an assistant to the director in the office, also claims she was denied the right to work from home despite her diagnosis, in part because she claimed that Deputy County Executive Michael Santeramo "solicited sexual interaction from [her] and threatened her with repercussions should she not comply or report his conduct."
"Many of the above issues she experienced relating to the failure to provide her reasonable accommodations are also a byproduct of Santeramo’s retaliatory animus," the suit reads.
The New York Post reports that Rothschild filed a Brooklyn federal lawsuit against the county, former County Executive Laura Curran, Santeramo and others for damages.
The Long Island native formally asked to work from home in July 2020 and was only permitted if she obtained a doctor’s note and re-submitted her request each month, the lawsuit alleges.
Meanwhile, "due to the pandemic, roughly sixty percent of county employees were working from home, and Rothschild had been and was able to perform the essential functions of her job remotely," according to the filing.
Rothschild eventually hired an attorney and filed a formal complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission as a result of the monthly request.
From July 2021 and throughout the rest of the year, she continued to ask to work from home "as her cancer had returned and her immune system was severely compromised."
Though Rothschild alleges she even had pain that made it difficult to walk, she was "only offered the ability to work out of an office the size of a closet at the county," which was not clean and forced her to walk through common areas where others were potentially exposing her to "fatal viruses."
The county "refused" to grant her the accommodation, and Santeramo allegedly told Rothschild’s lawyer, "I’m in a rough place to help you with the letters," the suit reads.
She and her lawyer were "explicitly told" to "stop fighting their claims and ‘tone down’ their representation of Rothschild in the EEOC."
Rothschild was fired in January and in the suit she claims her "reputation was tarnished."
Santeramo and Curran did not immediately respond to calls for comment from the Post.
The County Executive’s Office told the outlet it doesn’t comment on pending litigation.
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