Portland Nursing Home Employee Says She Was Fired for Reporting COVID-19 Dangers to Her Boss

She is seeking $950,000 for whistleblower retaliation and sick leave retaliation.

Fir trees in Northeast Portland. (Aaron Mesh)
In a lawsuit filed today, a worker at a Southeast Portland nursing home says she was fired after complaining to her employer that the facility was still holding group activities for residents.

Candy Sizemore-Harvey says Senior Haven on Southeast Foster Road fired her after she warned her boss and others in March that the facility was in violation of the state order and federal guidelines mandating social distancing.

"Specifically, plaintiff reported that defendant was continuing to encourage its elderly patients to do group activities in violation of state and federal safety rules during the COVID-19 quarantine," the complaint says.

Sizemore-Harvey had been the activity director at Senior Haven for two years. She tells WW she warned the facility it needed to halt group activities and group dining. The facility halted such services  as soon as Sizemore-Harvey first alerted the head nurse. But the next day, in a group text, the head nurse and owner reinstated the activities, she says.

"I was glad they were finally complying," she says. "I was really upset. The whole point is to protect people."

It took nearly another week and more pressure from Sizemore-Harvey for the facility to halt the activities again, she says.

On March 23, Sizemore-Harvey told her employer she believed she needed to self-quarantine. She says she filled out a questionnaire and honestly reported she was feeling sick. The next day, Senior Haven told her to take a sick day, which she did.

"Defendant then falsely accused plaintiff of job abandonment as a pretext and told plaintiff that her employment was terminated," the lawsuit says, adding that the company fired her "because plaintiff had reported information she believed to be evidence of a violation of a state or federal law, rule or regulation."

The employee says she had not a single disciplinary issue on her record. "I've never had an issue, warning or write-up," she says.

Sizemore-Harvey is seeking $950,000 for retaliation against a whistleblower and for taking sick leave.

"Even though Oregon is an 'at will' state, the law prohibits corporations from retaliating against employees who report workplace safety issues," says Sizemore-Harvey's attorney, Michael Fuller. "We look forward to presenting this case to a Portland jury sometime next year."

Austin Evans, the managing member at Senior Haven, says the facility has not yet been served papers, so it is unable to provide comment on the allegations.

"It's affected me," says Sizemore-Harvey. "I was really upset. I have dreams every single day about work and about the residents."

To date, there have been no reported cases of COVID-19 at Senior Haven, located at 12140 SE Foster Road. Long-term care facilities statewide account for more than half the state's deaths due to COVID-19, and at least 14 deaths can be traced back to another Portland facility, Healthcare at Foster Creek.

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