‘We want justice’: Ex-Kansas City VA worker sues for race, disability discrimination
A lawsuit filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri against the Kansas City Veteran’s Affairs Medical Center alleges a Filipina woman with diabetes was discriminated against.
According to the lawsuit, she was discriminated against based on her race, color, sex, and disability, and was retaliated against.
Marites “Tess” Lustado-Lybarger, the single mother of an 8-year-old boy, was hired as a cashier at the VA in 2017, she said during a press conference Wednesday morning about the lawsuit.
Lustado-Lybarger was continually “degraded and humiliated,” according to the lawsuit, when her supervisors talked to her “disrespectfully,” yelled at her in front of her coworkers, called her slow, and made fun of her national origin and size. She is under 5 feet tall.
When she was promoted from cashier to vending clerk, she learned that two other white employees offered the same position made $1.75 more than her. She said at the press conference that she needed the raise for food, gas and rent.
The VA then didn’t follow up with paperwork needed to make the change official, meaning Lustado-Lybarger continued to perform vending clerk duties without the title or increased pay. She was never provided the training needed for her position, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit also alleges two managers did not provide her with two 15-minute and one 30-minute break so that Lustado-Lybarger could eat and manage her diabetes.
Once, when she was trying to leave work because she was sick in August 2017, her manager pointed his finger in her face and said, “Why are you spreading rumors? I will write you up.”
Later that month, the lawsuit alleges, another manager didn’t do anything when a team leader screamed at Lustado-Lybarger in front of her coworkers to not “talk to any cashiers. That is the policy.”
She was written up for not securing vending machine money in the company vehicle, but at other times was threatened with discipline for not leaving money unsecured, the lawsuit alleges.
In front of a delivery driver in November, a supervisor in November spoke to her “like a dog,” the lawsuit says. In December, according to the lawsuit, she was threatened with being called “absent without leave” when she met with her Equal Employment Opportunity officer.
Lustado-Lybarger said at Wednesday’s press conference that she would feel “a high amount of anxiety and stress” before going into work in the morning. She sought treatment for anxiety and depression.
“It made me lose confidence and desire to do anything,” Lustado-Lybarger said. “It really affected home life with my son.”
On Dec. 17, the lawsuit says, Lustado-Lybarger became sick after her supervisor denied her a break. She started throwing up while working. Her supervisor, the lawsuit alleges, “smiled at her as she was vomiting.”
The next day, she was fired during her probationary period — seven days before Christmas.
That day, her supervisors “falsely claimed that (she) had angry outbursts in front of customers; denied her request for a copy of the video footage from above her register; and ‘treated’ her ‘like a criminal’ when they had two VA police officers escort her out of her workplace to her vehicle,” according to the lawsuit.
She was told she was fired for not providing “appropriate customer service and creating a disruption” the day before.
In January, Lustado-Lybarger learned her supervisors allegedly spread rumors about her to her former coworkers, including that she was fired “because she messed up orders.”
At the press conference across from the U.S. District courthouse, Lustado-Lybarger said, “I managed to get up and keep going. I am strong and here to stand up for my rights.”
She held a sign saying, “justice for VA employees,” and “end racism now.”
“I am also speaking for the VA employees that get mistreated,” Lustado-Lybarger said. She said other VA employees have called her to say that she is “their hero to stand up for my rights and their rights.
“We want justice and I want justice for how they treated me. I am also a human who needs to be treated like a human.”
Lustado-Lybarger’s attorney, Rebecca Randles, in a statement read by Melody O’Grady, said she hopes “every person who has suffered unfairness or oppression at the VA will come forward and expose these hurtful actions so the hospital, the agency, the hard-working and dedicated employees and the deserving veterans get the best and safest work and treatment environment possible.”
Earlier this month, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie visited the Kansas City Va and said the department is undergoing “cultural change.” He also said he is bringing accountability to all levels of the VA.
Wilkie, listed as a defendant in the lawsuit, said at a press conference that day that he wants to hear from employees.
“Many of the things that you all have reported on will not be tolerated,” Wilkie said. He added that “one charge of discrimination is one too many.”
Charmayne “Charlie” Brown, who has also accused the VA of discrimination, said at the press conference that listening to Lybarger’s story is like she is “living it all over again.”
But, since she spoke out last month, Brown said the support for VA employees has gained momentum.
“The more we work, the harder we have to work because people are coming to us more and more now sharing their stories about mistreatment, discrimination, failure to promote racial epithets, (and) things of that nature,” Brown said. “So none of that has stopped.”
Brown is part of a group of about 50 Black current and former employees who have experienced racial discrimination at the VA. She said Wednesday that the group now totals about 70 people nationwide.
VA employees speaking to The Star previously have shared their stories and described systemic discrimination at the medical center.
“To those at the VA, my personal message to you is: I’m not stopping,” Brown said. “I’m not backing down until we have justice.”
