Portland radio personality Randi Kirshbaum has filed two employment discrimination complaints against her former employer, alleging she was terminated from her job because of her age, a pre-existing medical condition, and her employer’s refusal to make an accommodation for her to work from home rather than return to the office, where she faced a greater risk of exposure to the COVID-19 virus.
Her attorney, David G. Webbert, on Sunday said Kirshbaum filed complaints against Portland Radio Group and its parent corporation, Saga Communications of Michigan. Kirshbaum’s complaints will be investigated by the Maine Human Rights Commission and by the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Saga will have 60 days to respond to the state complaint.
Kirshbaum, who had been on Portland’s airwaves for 38 years, was working for the Portland Radio Group as program manager for WCLZ and Coast 93.1, and was an on-air host for WCLZ and country station WPOR. She said she was fired in May during an online meeting with officials from Saga Communications.
In an interview earlier this year with the Press Herald, Kirshbaum said she had been working remotely from her Scarborough home for six weeks, doing her shows from there and managing other station staff members. Kirshbaum requested to work remotely at the recommendation of her physician, Dr. Allyson Howe. Kirshbaum has a genetic medical condition that could be triggered by respiratory ailments like COVID-19.
“They decided for some inexplicable reason that I needed to come back, even though I’ve been able to do everything I need to do from home,” Kirshbaum said during an interview in May. “It was shocking, because this (pandemic) is a fluid situation. Two weeks from now, it could all be different.”
Chris Forgy, senior vice president of operations for Saga, said in a May interview that Kirshbaum was let go because she did not follow the terms she agreed to for working remotely.
Forgy said when Kirshbaum started working remotely she had agreed that her situation would be assessed every two weeks to see if the arrangement was working, and that “it would be Saga’s decision” as to when Kirshbaum should come back to work. When she refused to return to the office, Forgy said the company placed Kirshbaum on “layoff.”
“She’s completely uncomfortable coming back to the office, and it’s virtually impossible for her to be a supervisor and not come back,” Forgy said in May. “We need to have leadership in the building.”
Forgy, reached Sunday evening, said the company does not comment on personnel matters involving any former or present employee.
Kirshbaum, in an email exchange Sunday evening, referred all questions to her attorney. Webbert is a partner in the Maine-based firm of Johnson, Webbert & Young, which specializes in…
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