Randi Kirshbaum, a DJ and manager at WPOR and WCLZ radio in Portland for 38 years, has filed an employment discrimination complaint with the Maine Human Rights Commission (MHRC) and U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) against her former employer.
Kirshbaum, 66, was fired in May for refusing to return to the office on her doctor’s recommendation amid coronavirus concerns.
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According to Kirshbaum’s lawyer, David Webbert, the complaint also details why she is considered high-risk, and the events leading up to her ultimate termination.
Read the entire News Center Maine article here.
Kirshbaum’s attorney, David G. Webbert, on Sunday said his client filed complaints against Portland Radio Group and its parent corporation, Saga Communications of Michigan. Similar complaints were filed with the Maine Human Rights Commission and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, a federal agency. The state and federal agencies have a work-sharing agreement under which the MHRC conducts an initial investigation, which is reviewed by the EEOC.
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Kirshbaum, in an email exchange Sunday evening, referred all questions to her attorney. Webbert is a partner in the Maine-based firm of Johnson, Webbert & Garvan, which specializes in employment litigation. Webbert said that Kirshbaum, 66, is in a high risk category for “dying or suffering serious injury from COVID-19.”
“Despite my very favorable performance reviews and the strong support and loyalty of our listeners, I was abruptly fired from my job of 38 years when I refused to defy my doctor’s orders and risk my life by appearing in-person at work in the midst of this deadly global pandemic,” Kirshbaum states in her Maine Human Rights Commission complaint.
Read the entire Portland Press Herald article here.