Workday sued, faces claims of race, disability discrimination

• A Black Workday employee sued the company, alleging racial and disability discrimination.
• Workday sent the police to his home while he was in the hospital.
• Anthony Hill, the employee, claims he has faced other incidents of racial bias at the company.

A Black Workday employee has filed a race and disability discrimination lawsuit against his employer after it sent police to his home for a “wellbeing check” while he was being treated at a hospital and requested sick leave.

Anthony Hill, senior legal counsel at Workday, who is black and on leave from the company, filed the lawsuit against the company in the Northern District of California court in December 2023. The case is still ongoing.

In June, the case was dismissed without prejudice because the court ruled that Hill did not adequately plead that California law should apply extraterritorially. Workday is based in California, while Hill is based in Maryland. Hill filed an amended complaint, which Workday moved to dismiss. Court-mediated settlement negotiations last month failed.

Hill claims to have been on sick leave from October 12, 2022 to November 22, 2022.

Before his leave, Hill said he started drinking more as he faced more stress. On Oct. 12, 2022, he went to the hospital because of “stress, exhaustion and trauma associated with this and other disparate, discriminatory, retaliatory, harassing and hostile treatment meted out to him” by other Workday employees, the suit says.

That day, Hill emailed his manager to let her know he had a medical emergency and was going to the hospital. He also submitted a completed leave application form and said he will soon submit the necessary documents for the Family and Medical Leave Act.

The next day, his manager responded with FMLA information and said, “Please don’t worry about work and focus on getting better.”

On October 20, 2022, while still in the hospital, Workday sent the police to his home for a “wellness check”.

According to a police report on the incident, a Workday safety and security manager called the police for a welfare check on Hill because the company was unable to reach Hill or his wife, the emergency contact. expedite. Police spoke with Hill’s wife, who confirmed that Hill was receiving medical treatment, the report said.

Hill told Business Insider that he received no records, calls or emails from Workday after the last email from his manager on October 13 and before the incident.

At the hospital, Hill was unable to use his cell phone, so a rehab staff member informed Hill of this and allowed him to call his wife. Hill said that when he heard about it, he felt like he was “going to have a heart attack” and his wife, who was at home at the time, was “disturbed” by the incident.

The Montgomery County Police Department, where the health screening took place, declined to comment because it is not involved in the lawsuit.

“He wouldn’t have thought that police officers with guns could solve anything on October 20 that doctors with stethoscopes couldn’t solve,” Hill told BI.

Workday declined to comment for this report.

FMLA guarantees eligible employees of covered employers to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid sick or family leave in a year. The employee must state that they need to take FMLA leave, while the employer should inform the employee that they qualify for sick leave and provide the paperwork for the employee to complete.

The Department of Labor requires employers to give employees 15 calendar days to provide full FMLA medical certification.

Hill said he was initially concerned about FMLA compliance when he was admitted to the hospital because he hadn’t completed the paperwork at the time, but staff told him about this legal protection and said the hospital provided the FMLA paperwork within 15 days.

Hill filed an EEOC charge against Workday in April 2023. In August 2023, he first filed a lawsuit against the company in the Superior Court for the District of Columbia, which was voluntarily dismissed without prejudice.

Returning from medical leave

A few months after returning from leave, Hill asked Workday’s human resources department in March 2023 for more information about the health check. The staff refused to give him information or documents about it.

“They won’t tell me anything. Did they think it was an emergency? Did they think I was in danger?” Hill said: “Did they think I was going to hurt somebody? Why did they send the police to my house and put my wife and children at risk?”

Although Workday may have tried to contact Hill to complete his FMLA paperwork, it is unusual for them to send police to an employee’s home for a welfare check, said Cassie Lenning, a partner at Outten and Golden, a law firm that represents technology employees and is not involved. in process.

If an employee had mental health issues that the employer was aware of, that could be a situation where an employer can refer someone for a wellness check, Lenning said.

“Even in that circumstance, why wouldn’t they send someone from the office as opposed to the police? There’s still a level of escalation in calling the police, well-intentioned or not,” Lenning said. “I question the judgment of anyone who would send the police to a black man’s house. There are racial implications that are being ignored.”

Hill said that after returning to work, she received “horrendous treatment,” such as receiving more rejection at work and being excluded from meeting invitations. He said he had a modified schedule that he was working on part-time.

In January 2023, he reported his complaints of racial and disability discrimination at the company to HR and asked to be transferred to another group at work. The company’s human resources staff investigated the case and then closed it in March, concluding that his claims “lacked merit,” the suit says.

Other allegations of employment discrimination

Hill has been with Workday since January 2021. Before his leave, he said he sought a promotion but was denied one. When he asked his manager for one, he was told he had to put it together and present a document about his achievements.

“That’s a hurdle that my non-black peers haven’t had to overcome,” Hill said.

Later, he said, he began to receive more pushback in his work, such as when he enforced policies limiting the giving of gifts to federal officials the company wanted to sign. According to the lawsuit, Hill also said a colleague told him during a meeting, “Everybody knows you don’t want to work, Anthony,” and he doubled down on his work ethic and professional reputation. Hill told his manager that the incident “seemed racist”.

“It was pretty clear to me that they were setting me up to fail,” Hill said.

In March 2023, Hill was administratively suspended with pay for five weeks. In May 2023, Hill went on approved disability and medical leave, although he said he was denied long-term disability leave.

“Without a doubt, I’ve been retaliated over and over again,” Hill said.

Workday is also facing a class action lawsuit alleging that its AI software for employers excludes job seekers on discriminatory grounds.

In 2020, following the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and other black people at the hands of the police, several tech companies shared statements taking a stand against racism. These promises have led to little action to improve diversity, equity, inclusion and ownership at tech companies.

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