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Member, Beacon International Group, Ltd.
A Dallas plastic surgery center has agreed to pay $315,000 to settle charges it unlawfully fired two employees and then sued one of them in a retaliatory lawsuit when she sought help from the National Labor Relations Board, the NLRB said Thursday.
The NLRB said in its statement the case began in December 2010, when a medical technologist at the Advanced Facial Plastic Surgery Center P.A. in Dallas was fired for discussing bonuses with other employees. Under the National Labor Relations Act, employees have the right to discuss wages and other terms and conditions of employment with co-workers, the NLRB said.
The technologist filed a charge with the NLRB office in Fort Worth, Texas, and, after an investigation, its regional director issued a complaint and scheduled a trial before an administrative law judge, the NLRB said.
The center then fired a surgical consultant after she defended her co-workers in a meeting and engaged in other protected activity, the NLRB said. She also filed a charge with the Fort Worth office, which issued a second complaint and consolidated the two cases.
After the surgical consultant filed the charges, the company’s attorney filed a lawsuit in state court against her, charging she had been negligent and breached certain fiduciary duties. The NLRB said its investigation and analysis determined the lawsuit was baseless, unsupported in the law and retaliatory.
The settlement agreement covers lost wages and benefits for the employees, who waived their right to reinstatement to their former positions, as well as attorney’s fees incurred in defending the lawsuit. The surgery center also agreed to withdraw the lawsuit, among other provisions of the settlement agreement.
A spokesman for the center could not immediately be reached for comment.