Denise Frisino’s troubles with toxic mold began in 2000 when she acquired a respiratory illness in response to chemical toxins present at Hamilton International Middle School. The illness made her sensitive to a range of airborne toxins, from mold to other irritants.  After attempts to clean up the toxic environment at the school failed, Frisino was forced to go on medical leave in April 2004 and agreed to be transferred to Nathan Hale High School the following school year.

According to court documents, the extent to which Seattle Public Schools has failed to address widespread mold and toxin problems became clear when Frisino entered her new classroom at Hale.  She “immediately note[d] visible mold as well as blackened and missing ceiling tiles.”  Frisino discussed her concerns with Hale Principal Lisa Hechtman.  In September and October, a private firm, Clayton Group Services, as well as the Seattle/King Country Department of Health investigated and “reported no active mold growth in the building.”  Although they reported “the total fungal structure concentrations inside the hale building were lower than those found outdoors,” the District still performed some minimal remediation on the classroom.  On November 21, the issue came to a head when Frisino experienced a respiratory emergency in the classroom requiring a visit to the emergency room.

Michelle Esteban of KOMO News reported on November 29, 2004 on photos of mold that a Nathan Hale parent provided.  Esteban notes, “Some of the ceiling tiles are peeled away and, underneath, a black mold.”  The article also described Frisino’s reaction as “severe–everything from a hacking cough, swollen nose, ringing ears and now respiratory complications.”

Frisino was not the only person put in jeopardy by the continuing mold problem at Nathan Hale.  Seattlepi.com reported on December 7, 2004 that Jennifer Aspelund pulled her son out of Nathan Hale because of the threat the mold posed.  Her son, North Aspelund Jr., was “diagnosed with leukemia at age 4, relapsed four years later, then endured a bone marrow transplant and the removal of a cancerous kidney.”  After detecting a an odd smell in the library, officials confirmed an “area above a northeast stairwell contain[ed] Stachybotrys atra, a greenish-black mold.” His mother noted they never would have enrolled North in Hale had they been aware of the mold problem.

Meanwhile, Frisino was earnestly negotiating with the District to accommodate her disability.  According to court documents, the District hired Superior Colt to remove visible mold from Classroom 216.  The remediation project was completed in December and the District demanded Frisino return to work on January 3, 2005.  Thus began a flurry of communication between Frisino and the District, with the District claiming the environmental remediation was “appropriate” and Frisino’s doctors repeating she was “advised to remain away from her current workplace or be transferred to a more accommodating environment.”  The District terminated Frisino on June 1, claiming she failed to return to work.

Frisino’s original lawsuit alleged the District failed to provide a reasonable accommodation as required by the Washington Law Against Discrimination, and engaged in employment discrimination and retaliatory discharge.  The trial court dismissed her claim in favor of the District.

Yesterday Frisino’s claim was given new life by the Washington State Court of Appeals when she was granted a new trial.  Among other irregularities, the court noted the District attempted to apply an “objective measure” to her illness and questioned whether the District reasonably accommodated Frisino. Most importantly, in the last month many of the key players working for the School District have been terminated for misuse of District funds and poor leadership after being swept up in the Seattle Public Schools Scandal.

Since the case was dismissed in 2009, Nathan Hale has been completely renovated.

The Appeals Court’s granting of a trial is an important victory for injured workers whose employers violate their rights by refusing to accommodate a disability or terminate in retaliation.  There is a Washington L & I attorney at Emery Reddy  that has the expertise to protect your rights.  Stay tuned as this case continues to unfold…

And yet for a North Carolina health care worker, the offended party was his employer. And the form of betrayal?  Workers’ Compensation Fraud.

The case highlights a troubling trend in the increasing intrusion of employers into the private, even intimate life, of their workers.  The case also reveals that without proper protection from workers’ compensation attorneys, the government is ready to support the employer’s effort to do so.

According to media reports, the plaintiff in the case  worked as a health care technician at a residential health care facility.  After being the victim of a physical struggle with a patient, the plaintiff reported a back injury and began to collect benefits in March 2007.

Court records reveal the employer began to hear reports that there were video postings on the Internet of the plaintiff engaged in sexual acts while he was receiving workers’ compensation benefits. Armed with these rumors, the health care facility hired a private investigator to substantiate these claims.

It seems the investigator did… tracking down a whopping 107 videos. Adding to the already provocative nature of the claims, the investigator discovered the other participant in the videos was a co-worker.   Citing this information, the employer fired the two workers in January 2008 for personal misconduct. While these dismissals themselves bring up a host of troubling questions about the rights workers have to autonomy and intimacy in their private lives, it is the further use of these videos that seem to represent the biggest threats to workers’ rights under workers’ compensation laws.

The Employer had a physician review several videos and testify that the acts depicted should have caused the worker substantial pain and suffering. Although the worker argued that the videos were filmed well before the date of the injury, the government met this claim with skepticism. In November 2007, the full North Carolina Industrial Commission ruled the worker was not credible and denied his claims to worker’s compensation.

In a world where videos of injured workers playing golf or working around the yard are aired by anti-labor  media outlets bent on stirring outrage in the public, the focus on a sensational sex video in this case and the seeming moral approbation attached to the worker by the Commission cannot be dismissed. And yet if we are to eject the puritanical lens through which the Commission no doubt viewed the case, there are even more deeply troubling trends in the erosion of workers’ rights suggested here.

The most obvious problem with the decision is the expectation that a worker must not maintain a functioning private life in the face of a work injury.  In effect, the Employer was arguing that the worker must completely forgo sexual relations to be credible in his claim to worker’s compensation.  And yet, if the worker could no longer have sexual relations with spouse, he or she could claim “loss of consortium” — i.e. the claim that the injury prevents one from having sex with a spouse.

Ultimately what is at stake here is the right for a worker to accept pain to engage in acts of private, human intimacy even while he has the right not to experience pain in the performance of work duties.

Workers that suspect their rights to privacy and autonomy are being tested or violated by employers should immediately contact an experienced Seattle or Washington Labor and Industries Lawyer to protect them.

Washington Labor and Industries is in the process of overhauling its website, www.lni.wa.gov. The revisions to the Washington L&I website are the result of user feedback collected over a significant period of time, as well as the efforts of L&I website designers. The new look improves the homepage, streamlines navigation and uses space more efficiently.

The new Washington L&I homepage, the content of which provides details on injured workers’ employment and workers’ compensation rights, provides better visuals and a more welcoming portal to the rest of the L&I site. Online services like the Claim and Account Center simplify the search for injured workers’ rights and remedies, workers’ compensation information, and specific claim information.

Streamlined navigation was a major focus of the L&I site revisions, and the result is a menu that includes headings for Safety, Claims and Insurance, Workplace Rights, and Trades and Licensing. These headings are continuously available. The new L&I site also restricts views to exactly what workers need, eliminating the confusing overload of unnecessary information. An injured worker pursuing a claim will find it easier to review his or her workers’ compensation and Washington L&I rights, understand workers’ comp injury data and statistics, verify workers’ comp coverage, and complete insurance forms. These changes promise to ease the burden on workers who depend on this web tool for information about injury claims.

The new L&I website also makes the most of its available space by consistently packaging information into succinct titles and removing duplication of information, such as contact information and Spanish translation for non-ESL workers.

Of the many revisions to the L&I site, one of the most effective is a new tool that permits a site user (commonly a worker with an L&I covered injury) to maintain a set of links packaged specifically for that worker. For example, a worker who suffered a back injury on the job could build links and bookmarks about necessary claim information, PPD awards related specifically to his or her injury, relevant contact information, and crucial information the worker would need if he or she found it necessary to appeal a claim with the Washington Board of Industrial Insurance Appeals. These links would remain consistently available regardless of the user’s navigation to other locations on the site. A review of the new site is available at http://www.lni.wa.gov/refresh.

Previously, an injured worker in need of advice might navigate the L&I website without access to important links that remained buried in inconspicuous locations. New content and links refer an injured worker directly to information about pursuing claims or appeals for his or her injury.

For more information, please visit Emery Reddy, PLLC online, or contact us via telephone at (206) 442-9106.

Emery Reddy represents plaintiffs in L&I, employment law and personal injury matters.  The firm and its attorneys are trusted advocates for Washington workers who experience job related injuries.