Typically when employee discrimination claims are filed by an employee in Kansas, the company is named as the defendant. The company is typically named as the defendant because the company is generally liable for the actions of all of their employees, including supervisors and managers. Since a company can be liable for the actions of all of its employees, it may benefit an employer to ensure all employment practices are in compliance with prevailing Kansas, Missouri or any other state and federal labor laws in which they employee workers.
In order for an employer to ensure all employment practices are in legal compliance, the employer is generally required to ensure that all management is aware of and has received training on relevant employment laws. It is a general presumption that management is aware of prevailing employment laws, but unfortunately that is not always the case. When prevailing employment laws are not understood and employees are treated inappropriately, an employee discrimination lawsuit may ensue.
The Kansas University Hospital is currently facing the second employee discrimination lawsuit that has been filed against the hospital in the past few years. The second lawsuit alleges that a hospital employee endured discrimination by her supervisor from May 2011 until February 2012.
The lawsuit claims that the employee endured discrimination in the form of race, disability and sex discrimination. The factual description of the actual discrimination was not released, but it was stated that the same supervisor was named in both lawsuits. The plaintiff in the second lawsuit is seeking financial damages in the amount of $3.5 million and the lawsuit remains pending.
Source: Lawrence Journal World, “Second lawsuit in less than a month filed against KU Hospital,” Shaun Hittle, Jan. 11, 2013