The termination came days after she returned from approved FMLA leave
A Las Vegas benefits worker says she was fired days after returning from approved medical leave.
The employee had worked for Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. as a benefit advocacy representative since April 2019, according to a federal complaint filed on October 1, 2026 in the US District Court for the District of Nevada.
Then came the hernia surgery.
The complaint alleges that after the worker underwent the procedure on November 7, 2025, she took roughly three weeks of medical leave. Shortly after she returned, her employer placed her on a written performance improvement plan.
That followed a supervisor change in September 2025, after which the filing says the company began subjecting her to increased scrutiny.
On December 12, 2025, the worker contacted Gallagher's leave and accommodation department, the complaint states. She explained she could not handle back-to-back phone work for eight hours because of her health conditions - an anxiety disorder with panic attacks, irritable bowel syndrome, and a post-surgical hernia condition - and that her doctors supported limiting her phone duties.
She started approved intermittent FMLA leave on December 30, 2025, according to the filing.
What happened next, the complaint alleges, looked nothing like accommodation.
Rather than adjust her workload, the filing states Gallagher extended her performance improvement plan on January 23, 2026 and tried to move her from an email-based research advocate role into a call advocate position - one requiring substantially more phone work, directly clashing with the restrictions she had flagged.
By February 10, 2026, the company did approve an accommodation restricting the worker to email-based casework with no phone requirements, the complaint says. She accepted it and continued to need it.
In March 2026, the filing alleges the worker went to HR to complain she was being singled out and that her treatment felt like harassment. According to the complaint, Gallagher did not address it.
The termination came on or about April 8, 2026, the filing states - shortly after the worker returned from a day of approved FMLA leave. The complaint alleges the stated grounds were "false and pretextual" and that the real reasons were disability discrimination and retaliation for requesting accommodations and using medical leave.
The worker had dual-filed a charge with the EEOC and the Nevada Equal Rights Commission on September 29, 2026, according to the complaint. The EEOC closed the case without making findings and issued an immediate right-to-sue notice on October 1, 2026.
The lawsuit brings seven claims under both federal and Nevada state law: disability discrimination, retaliation, failure to accommodate, and interference with FMLA rights. The complaint seeks compensatory, emotional distress, and punitive damages, along with attorneys' fees.
For HR teams, the sequence alleged here is a sharp reminder of what happens when performance management, medical leave, and accommodation timelines stack on top of each other - and a termination lands the week an employee comes back from approved leave.
None of the allegations in the complaint have been tested in court, and no court has made any findings or rulings on the merits.
