Portland ME Radio: Randi Kirshbaum Files Suit Against Saga

Portland ME radio personality Randi Kirshbaum has filed two employment discrimination complaints against her former employer, alleging she was terminated from her job because of her age, a pre-existing medical condition, and her employer’s refusal to make an accommodation for her to work from home rather than return to the office, where she faced a greater risk of exposure to the COVID-19 virus, reports The Press-Herald. .

Her attorney, David G. Webbert, on Sunday said Kirshbaum filed complaints against Portland Radio Group and its parent corporation, Saga Communications of Michigan. Kirshbaum’s complaints will be investigated by the Maine Human Rights Commission and by the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Saga will have 60 days to respond to the state complaint.

Kirshbaum, who had been on Portland’s airwaves for 38 years, was working for the Portland Radio Group as program manager for WCLZ 98.9 FM and WMGX Coast 93.1, and was an on-air host for WCLZ and country station WPOR 101.9 FM. She said she was fired in May during an online meeting with officials from Saga Communications.

Randi Kirshbaum

In an interview earlier this year with the Press Herald, Kirshbaum said she had been working remotely from her Scarborough home for six weeks, doing her shows from there and managing other station staff members. Kirshbaum requested to work remotely at the recommendation of her physician, Dr. Allyson Howe. Kirshbaum has a genetic medical condition that could be triggered by respiratory ailments like COVID-19.

“They decided for some inexplicable reason that I needed to come back, even though I’ve been able to do everything I need to do from home,” Kirshbaum said during an interview in May.

Chris Forgy, senior vice president of operations for Saga, said in a May interview that Kirshbaum was let go because she did not follow the terms she agreed to for working remotely.

Forgy said when Kirshbaum started working remotely she had agreed that her situation would be assessed every two weeks to see if the arrangement was working, and that “it would be Saga’s decision” as to when Kirshbaum should come back to work. When she refused to return to the office, Forgy said the company placed Kirshbaum on “layoff.”

Forgy, reached Sunday evening, said the company does not comment on personnel matters involving any former or present employee.

Kirshbaum, in an email exchange Sunday evening, referred all questions to her attorney. Webbert is a partner in the Maine-based firm of Johnson, Webbert & Young, which specializes in employment litigation. Webbert said that Kirshbaum, 66, is in a high risk category for “dying or suffering serious injury from COVID-19.”

“Despite my very favorable performance reviews and the strong support and loyalty of our listeners, I was abruptly fired from my job of 38 years when I refused to defy my doctor’s orders and risk my life by appearing in-person at work in the midst of this deadly global pandemic,” Kirshbaum states in her Maine Human Rights Commission complaint.