He requested a standing desk in January — by mid-March, he was out
A long-tenured UPS employee claims he was pushed out weeks before his department was sold, alleging age, disability, race, and national origin discrimination.
Kin Ho Michael Pan spent more than two decades building his career at United Parcel Service. In March 2025, it came to an abrupt end — less than two months after he requested a standing desk for a spinal condition, and just weeks before UPS completed the sale of his department to NTT Data.
Now, he is suing the company in federal court, alleging that UPS used a data security policy as a convenient excuse to remove the oldest worker on his team ahead of a corporate transaction.
The lawsuit, filed February 5 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, paints a troubling picture for employers navigating workforce decisions during mergers and acquisitions. Pan, a 47-year-old IT professional of Chinese descent, alleges UPS wanted to present "a younger, less expensive, and ostensibly lower-risk workforce" to the buyer. He was the oldest member of his immediate team by eight years, and roughly 70 percent of workers in the Systems Engineering department were under 40.
The sequence of events leading to his termination deserves attention from HR leaders.
In January 2025, Pan requested a standing desk to manage chronic pain from a cervical and lumbar spine condition. UPS approved the accommodation. But according to the lawsuit, his manager told him he "should have run [the ADA request] by him first." By mid-March, Pan was out of a job.
The stated reason was a data security violation involving a personal USB drive. But Pan alleges the policy was "widely disregarded" across the company and "neither consistently nor uniformly enforced." He points to several non-Asian colleagues who allegedly used personal USB drives for years without facing any scrutiny or discipline. He also claims he had used the same device on multiple prior occasions to back up his workstation — without incident.
UPS security personnel, according to court filings, found no malware, no virus, and no evidence that any files on the device were accessed or launched on company systems.
The lawsuit also raises questions about how national origin may have factored into the decision. Pan had recently secured approval to travel to Asia to visit a terminally ill relative and had taken sick leave for a respiratory illness. He claims management viewed him through a lens colored by COVID-19 stereotypes tied to his Chinese heritage.
Pan is seeking back pay, front pay, lost benefits, and compensatory and punitive damages under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, Title VII, the New York State Human Rights Law, and Section 1981.
The case remains in its early stages, with no determination on the merits. But the allegations offer a cautionary reminder: termination decisions made in the shadow of corporate transactions — particularly those following accommodation requests — invite intense scrutiny.
The case is Pan v. United Parcel Service, Inc., Case No. 1:26-cv-00643.
