Eatontown Woman Sues Riverview Hospital For Wrongful Termination

RED BANK, NJ - A Monmouth County resident and longtime Riverview Medical Center employee is suing the hospital and its parent healthcare system after being fired, allegedly due to her refusing to perform temperature checks on visitors during the coronavirus pandemic while was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease.

Eatontown resident Marianne Hurley, 44, filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in February against Riverview Medical Center and Hackensack Meridian Health, alleging that the hospital violated Family and Medical Leave Act and disability anti-discrimination laws.

Hurley was a longtime employee for 21 years at Riverview Medical Center in Red Bank, most recently serving as an administrative assistant. Her duties included assisting with payroll, managing records, maintaining databases and ordering supplies, most of which were completed from her desk.

The Eatontown woman was diagnosed with the autoimmune disease Lupus in October 2020. She filed for intermittent leave shortly after the diagnosis through the federal Family and Medical Leave Act, the suit reads.

While the request was approved in November 2020 by the 468-bed hospital, upper management began assigning Hurley job responsibilities that were outside the scope of her normal duties and would “place her directly in contact with numerous hospital staff and patient[s] in the midst of an ongoing global pandemic for COVID-19," the suit reads.

According to the complaint, Hurley was tasked with greeting patients and clinical hospital staff at a main entrance to take their temperatures, directing them to perform hand washing and hand out masks, register patients “where there was no social distancing occurring” and participating in group meetings in-person.

Although Hurley explained that her suppressed immune system should render her as the last person to be selected for such high-risk tasks at the hospital, a hospital supervisor “was very dismissive of [Hurley]’s request, saying 'they' would need a special accommodation letter and simultaneously mocked the severity of COVID (stating people afraid of COVID were only exaggerating the situation and stating you can only contract COVID if people are kissing one another),” according to the lawsuit.

Hurley was ultimately suspended in late November 2020 “for alleged policy violations,” including theft of time for improperly reporting hours worked. Yet, the suit alleges that the Eatontown woman was never required to clock in and simply relied on upper management to input her hours.
The plaintiff is seeking a trial by jury, as well as her job reinstated. The complaint demands back pay, front pay (absent reinstatement), salary, pay increases, bonuses, medical and other benefits, as well as punitive or liquidated damages and subsidized cost of legal fees.