Discrimination Case Garners Record Settlement

The Tulare County Board of Supervisors has agreed to pay a record $425,000 to a former employee who claimed she was illegally discriminated against because of a mental disability, the state Department of Fair Employment and Housing reported.

The settlement, announced Thursday in favor of Suzanne Gundy of Visalia, a former manager in the county’s health and human services agency, is the largest for an individual in the history of the state’s anti-discrimination department.

The state department, which represented Gundy in the case, said the county refused to allow her to return to work because of a mental disability, even though her physicians had cleared her to resume employment. In addition, county officials banned her from being employed by the county in the future.

State department officials said the county failed to provide Gundy with a required “reasonable accommodation” that would have enabled her to resume working. She was not a health or safety risk to other employees, the department said.

“When someone receives medical treatment and is cleared to return to work, he or she has a right to do so without the erection of extra barriers,” said Dennis Hayashi, state director of Fair Employment and Housing.