Do we conciliate, or take them to court and sue them?

My fiance worked for a fortune 500 company as a field service technician several years ago. He, almost immediately became what they called a "Remote Tech", which basically meant he worked remotely from his home as his office and went to very remote areas of the state of New Mexico, where there was no city, or even in some cases, a town or village close by. They also called them "Remote Techs" because they lived far away from the home office, and basically never went there (did phone meetings, clocked in via tablet, had equipment delivered via UPS, etc). After a bit of time working for them and having numerous issues with his immediate supervisor, communication issues,etc., he emailed his supervisor's supervisor with his concerns and complaints, who then advised him to file a formal complaint with HR, which he did. After that, it seemed very apparent that he had angered not only his supervisor, but his supervisor's "friends" in other positions of superiority in the company. This made him fear for his job,and he began to "walk on eggshells" with them, doing the very best job he possibly could,and keeping his mouth shut. A few weeks after this complaint was filed, he tripped in a pothole on the job, at a customer's house, and began experiencing pain in his leg and back. He immediately brought the incident to his supervisor's attention, who then asked if it was bad enough to do him from working, which my fiance replied "no", and the supervisor then said, "it would be in your best interest to not report it". So,nothing further was said about it. Ironically, a month later, during a record breaking windy day in NM, a gust of wind caught the piece of equipment he was bringing up a ladder,and pulled him back right off the ladder,where he fell several feet and severely sprained his ankle and foot, and complicated the initial pain in his leg and back. The obvious injury was the sprained ankle, and he went through workers compensation and their focus with their doctors were on the sprained ankle, even though he kept telling them that he was experiencing leg and back pain. But he followed all instructions they gave him, was out of work for about 6 weeks, during which time he did the physical therapy they required, and even though he kept complaining about his leg and back, they just had one focus, which was, get him back on the job. He informed them that he was seeking answers to his pains through his own doctor, and they released him back to work. He continued to work, wanted to work, but was having some significant pain, mostly at night during sleep, or lack of sleep due to the screaming pain. Over the course of time, X-rays, 2 MRIs, and other tests, it was found that there was disc damage and root nerve impingement etc., that his doctor felt was caused by the work injuries, but was teasing him and said he could continue to work. His supervisor was informed of this, and since there was no need to stop working, nothing more was said or done. My fiance is not the vindictive type and never filed another claim. He wanted to work. After about a year of working in this condition, under a new supervisor now,who was well aware of the situations, both the complaint filed, and the fall and medical issues, my fiance began hearing from his "friends" who also worked for the company, that they overheard them discussing trying to find a way to "get rid of him either by pushing him to want to quit,or finding a reason to fire him". We thought long and hard about it and could only think of one way they might be able to fire him,and that was that he'd missed a few days of work over a several month period, did to the overnight pain associated with the injuries the prior year. So he asked his doctor for a medical excuse/return to work letter for his file, so they couldn't use that as a means to fire him. But, when he presented the doctor's note, something very unexpected happened. They immediately,for no reason at all, pulled him off the job,and wouldn't allow him to work another day. From that moment on, they did some illegal and very manipulative things, that eventually lead to the constructive discharge of employment. After doing everything they told him to do, and being declined both workers compensation and short term disability, because of course, they saw it as he was working just fine in that condition for a year, and after his employer refused to give him a letter stating that they pulled him if the job, and being stuck, no job, no money, suffering for over a year fighting for some kind of income due to them pulling him off the job, and then the constructive discharge, he finally filed charges with the EEOC for disability discrimination and constructive discharge. It has been 4 years, due partly to the government shutdown and partly the investigation responses back and forth between him and the company, but finally, the EEOC has found that they are guilty as charged and now they want us to agree to conciliate. Should we go to conciliation with them, or should we refuse conciliation and get a lawyer and sue those snakes? Mind you, we have much evidence and proof of our claims, and even the circumstancial evidence is leaning against them.

0 answers  |  asked Dec 8, 2015 09:27 AM [EST]  |  applies to New Mexico

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