Portland ME Radio: Fired PD Files Formal Complaint Against Saga

Randi Kirshbaum

 A fired radio personality who worked at Portland radio stations for 38 years claims in a lawsuit she was fired illegally after she refused to return to working in the stations’ office during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, reports The Bangor Daily News.

Randi Kirshbaum, 68, sought an accommodation to work from home on her doctor’s advice rather than in the office in the early months of the pandemic due to her age and family history of pulmonary disease, the complaint said.

Kirshbaum, who was a disc jockey and program manager at WPOR and WCLZ, was fired in May 2020 after she sought to continue working from home, according to the complaint. Because of her age and a family history of pulmonary fibrosis that occurs when the lungs become damaged or scarred, Kirshbaum sought to continue working remotely as she had since mid-March, when Gov. Janet Mills declared a state of emergency and, in essence, shut down the state.

She is asking to be reinstated and is seeking unspecified damages including back pay and benefits and future lost earnings. The stations, part of the Portland Radio Group, are owned by Saga Communications Inc. of Grosse Pointe, Michigan.

Kirshbaum’s case is part of a growing number of labor lawsuits nationwide alleging coronavirus-related labor and employment violations.

Her attorney, David Webbert of Augusta, said Friday that a complaint Kirshbaum filed against Saga with the Maine Human Rights Commission in late 2020 is pending. Once the commission’s investigator has filed a report, discrimination claims will be added to the complaint, he said.

Saga, through its attorney, Shiloh Theberge of Portland, denied Kirshbaum’s allegations.

The COVID-19 outbreak and its aftermath have made remote work an alternative to having employees perform their duties in an office in many professions.

Before the pandemic, courts often viewed skeptically requests to work from home as a reasonable accommodation under the American with Disabilities Act, finding that in-office work was an essential function of employees’ jobs, Webbert said.

Kirshbaum currently works remotely from her home on Mount Desert Island as a music director and on-air personality for radio stations in Baltimore and Vermont.