She got her job back in January - but not her back pay or her answers
A Maryland casino worker with multiple sclerosis says MGM fired her while her accommodation request still sat unanswered.
The worker, a full-time kitchen steward, has worked at MGM National Harbor since about December 2018, according to a complaint filed July 14, 2026, in federal court in Maryland. A union employee and shop steward, she has a known disability, and the filing says MGM accommodated her for years - including a February 2024 arrangement that let her sit briefly every two hours and take intermittent leave for flare-ups.
Things changed, the complaint alleges, when her condition worsened in May and June 2025. She asked to use an elevator and a closer time clock so she would not have to walk long distances - what her doctor described as the equivalent of several city blocks - to reach her station. According to the filing, MGM did not promptly approve the request. It asked for repeated medical clarification and left the matter open for months while she kept following up.
Around the same time, the complaint says, MGM told her she had not worked enough hours to recertify her intermittent FMLA leave. She disputed the calculation and says she spotted discrepancies between two timekeeping systems the company used - records labeled "Kronos Actuals" and records tied to "UKG Dimensions." She alleges her hours seemed to shrink rather than grow as the two sides compared numbers, and that MGM warned her absences could be treated as unauthorized and lead to discipline "up to and including termination."
The worker says she then told MGM she felt targeted and planned to file an EEOC charge for disability discrimination. Soon after, according to the filing, the company scrutinized her timekeeping, accused her of timekeeping-related misconduct, suspended her on or about September 18, 2025, and walked her off the property. On or about September 25, 2025, MGM partially approved her accommodation - one attendance day off a month - while leaving the elevator and time-clock request "under review," the complaint says.
MGM fired her on or about October 15, 2025, citing what the filing describes as several alleged policy violations, among them timekeeping, "job abandonment," "misconduct," and "dishonesty." She disputes those reasons and alleges they were pretextual - a cover, she claims, for pushing out an employee who had asserted disability and leave rights. A November 2, 2025 letter, the complaint says, acknowledged her still-open accommodation request but told her it would be treated as inactive because her employment had ended.
The company rehired her on or about January 20, 2026, and restored her seniority, according to the filing. But she alleges it did not restore her attendance balance, pay her back wages, or explain the firing. A renewed FMLA request was denied again in February 2026, she says, with MGM stating she had logged 1,130.55 hours against a 1,250-hour threshold - a count she disputes.
For HR leaders, the allegations track familiar failure points: letting an accommodation request drift without a decision, ending employment while the interactive process is still open, and resting discipline on contested attendance and timekeeping data. The worker brings claims under the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Family and Medical Leave Act, and the Maryland Fair Employment Practices Act, seeking damages of no less than $300,000 on several counts and no less than $100,000 on her ADA retaliation claim.
None of the allegations have been tested, and no court has ruled on any of the claims.
