Memorial Hermann, which reportedly had $5.06 billion in operating revenue in 2017, handed Wojcik a bill to pay its costs. On Nov. 8, Judge Hiller overruled Wojcik’s objections andSo Wojcik suffered the repeated humiliation of ageism, lost her job after she complained about it and ended up in debt because she had the effrontery to ask the U.S. District Court to enforce her right under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act to be free from illegal age discrimination.
Hiller did reduce Memorial Hermann’s original bill by $1,328.50, mainly because Memorial Hermann failed to justify the need for holding a video deposition of Wojcik.As in so many age discrimination cases, Wojcik alleges in her complaint that her troubles began in 2015 when she began working for a new and inexperienced supervisor, Tamara “Nikki” Shelton, the manager of the hospital’s Bellaire Clinic.
Wojcik states she was dismissed two months later in a sham reduction in force. She writes that Memorial Hermann refused to transfer her to alternate job positions for which she was qualified and was “actively recruiting for ‘Physical Therapy Assistants’” in the Houston area.He said she established a prima facie case of age discrimination but Memorial Hermann successfully articulated a “legitimate, non-discriminatory reason for the layoff, i.e., the reduction in force.