Miami plastic surgery company discriminated against worker with breast cancer, EEOC says

When a breast cancer patient undergoing chemotherapy asked to do her phone-based duties remotely to cut the chance of COVID-19 infection, the Miami-based plastic surgery company employing her refused, a federal lawsuit said.

That’s the basis for the disability discrimination lawsuit filed in Atlanta federal court by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on behalf of Kiera Webb against MIA Aesthetics Services and its Atlanta office, MIA Aesthetics ATL.

“Employees of Mia Aesthetics Services, LLC facilitated and participated in the termination of Webb’s employment,” the lawsuit says. “Defendants are so integrated with respect to ownership and operations as to constitute a single or integrated employer for purposes of” the Americans with Disabilities Act.

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State records say MIA Aesthetics is managed by Christian Alvarez and run out of 14000 SW 119th St. in Kendall, although their clinic is at 9300 SW 72nd St. MIA Aesthetics hasn’t responded to attempts to reach Alvarez or the company.

The Kendall location contains no surgical equipment and appears to be filled with people doing what Webb was hired to do in April 2021.

Working from phone but not from home

As a surgical sales coordinator, the lawsuit said, “Webb’s primary job duties consisted of speaking with potential patients over the phone and via text message to close sales and schedule surgical procedures.”

Webb worked out of the MIA Aesthetics ATL office, which actually sat in the Atlanta suburb of Doraville. To deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, then just over a year old, the office maintained a mask-facial covering policy.

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Webb had worked there 15 days when she told her on-site manager that she’d been diagnosed with breast cancer. Treatment would be in the form of chemotherapy from June 30, 2021, through Oct. 6, 2021, the lawsuit said, followed by a mastectomy and radiation therapy. A week into chemotherapy, Webb asked if she could work from home “on an intermittent basis, following her chemotherapy.”

When MIA Aesthetics ATL lifted its mask mandate on July 20, the lawsuit said, Webb told the human resources vice president that chemo treatments dropped the count of her white blood cells. With the decrease in the blood cells that fight infection came an increase in possible infections, including COVID-19. Webb asked to be allowed to work remotely throughout chemotherapy.

The lawsuit says the Miami-based director of sales told Webb on July 22 “not only could her work be done from home, but that he supported Webb working from home, and all she would need to work remotely was a phone.”

But on Aug. 9, the human resources vice president rejected that idea. Webb offered to come in to work for consultations, which were by appointment only, to take height, weight and prepare the exam room for the doctor consultations. The patients could be told face masks were mandatory for consultations.

MIA Aesthetics “would not agree to any accommodation which involved Webb working remotely,” the lawsuit said. An Aug. 9 email said the company was “unable to accommodate the work from home request as the surgical sales coordinator role is not conducive to work from home.”

The lawsuit claims MIA Aesthetics wanted Webb in the office to deal with walk-in patients, which happened about once a month. When the company offered a part-time job on the front-desk in the office at reduced pay, Webb refused.

MIA Aesthetics Miami-based senior human resources business partner messaged the human resources vice president on Aug. 16 that “I have reviewed Kiera’s response and will process her resignation from her position.”

The lawsuit claims the senior human resources partner “suggested marking July 26, 2021 as the day Webb ‘resigned.’

“Webb did not resign. [MIA Aesthetics] fired Webb.”

The lawsuit also claims on Oct. 19, 2021, MIA Aesthetics ATL “hired a new surgical sales coordinator, who worked from her home in Marietta, Georgia.”