TAMPA -- A woman claims to have suffered disability discrimination, hostility, refusal to accommodate her disability and retaliatory acts while working at the State of Florida Department of Revenue.
Rebecca Walker filed a complaint on April 29 in Hillsborough County Circuit Court against the State of Florida and the Department of Revenue, General Tax Administration for gender discrimination, disability discrimination, failure to accommodate disability, hostile work environment and retaliation.
According to the complaint, Walker suffered a traumatic event in 1993 that left her disabled. Walker was hired by the Department of Revenue on April 18, 1994, as a Government Analyst II. On July 19, 2017, Walker allegedly required medical leave due to discrimination and failure to accommodate her disability.
On May 31, 2018, due to exhaustion of employer-provided medical leave benefits, her application for unemployment was denied, and she was terminated.
Walker allegedly complained to her supervisor Peter Steffens in 2013 about her direct supervisor Richard Unen, and Walker alleges because the two were related, nothing was done about the issue. Walker alleges that Unen regularly used profanity towards her in angry rants, stated he could kill someone, refused to accommodate her liability and did all of these "triggering behaviors" seemingly as an intentional effort to torment her.
Walker alleges that Unen also generally and regularly bullied and harassed her, accused her of not socializing correctly and suggesting she drink and go to parties to advance her career. Walker alleges she also did not receive raises in 2016 and 2017 despite her high performance appraisal ratings and Unen told her she was in a dead-end job because of her gender and disability.
Walker seeks legal and equitable relief, damages for violations, attorney's fees and costs. Walker is represented by Charlotte Fernée Kelly of Fernee Kelley Law.