NYU denied injured technician’s accommodation then fired her, lawsuit alleges

According to the filing, the technician spent almost a quarter-century sterilizing surgical instruments, with steady performance reviews and no disciplinary record. Her job also meant loading and unloading sterilization machines on a rotation.

Her troubles began with a rotator cuff injury in 2023, the complaint says, followed by a neck and shoulder injury in March 2024 that she says happened when a tray became stuck. Her doctor certified that she could keep working within limits – most recently a cap of 25 pounds on pulling and lifting.

That restriction is where the dispute centers. While she was on leave, the hospital denied at least two requests to return with accommodations, the filing says, and later told her she could not come back with any restriction in place, citing what the complaint describes as “undue hardship.” To return at all, she says she was required to produce a doctor’s note that asked for no accommodation.

She came back in December 2025 with no restriction on file, according to the complaint, and was assigned heavy pushing and pulling of equipment weighing between 10 and 35 pounds – above the 25-pound limit her doctor had set only weeks earlier.

Then came the claim at the heart of the case. The complaint says her supervisor told her a director had ordered that assignment specifically to “test” her physical impairment.