By Rosie Manins

Law360 (March 9, 2021, 4:28 PM EST) -- A California-based global food supplier was hit with a disabilities discrimination lawsuit in a Georgia federal court on Monday by a former 26-year manufacturing plant employee who claims his reasonable request to work remotely during the coronavirus pandemic got him fired.

Georgia resident Alan Varnadoe, who worked as a scheduler at a manufacturing plant owned by Golden State Foods Corp., sued the company for alleged violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act, saying he reasonably asked in April to continue working from home due to his inflammatory lung disease and increased risk of severe illness from COVID-19. Golden State Foods had told him and other Georgia plant employees in mid-March 2020 to work remotely because of the pandemic but called them back a month later, Varnadoe says.

The 66-year-old said that he was fired days after requesting an accommodation for his known disability and was told that his job loss was part of pandemic-related cuts, but that none of his colleagues who had also been working remotely were fired. Varnadoe said fewer than 10 jobs were cut at or above his level at the plant in Conyers, Georgia, and that several months later, in July, Golden State Foods announced the opening of a new innovation center in the metropolitan Atlanta city.

"After eliminating Varnadoe, GSF has advertised the availability of, and hired for, multiple jobs at its Conyers facility including managerial positions at levels comparable to Varnadoe's former position," Varnadoe said in his complaint. "Though Varnadoe requested the accommodation of continuing to work remotely, he told Warner [one of his supervisors] he would return to working in person if defendant deemed it necessary."

Varnadoe said he started working for Golden State Foods in June 1994 and was promoted through several positions, lastly as a scheduler in its Conyers manufacturing plant. He said that he received a merit-based bonus in February 2020 and that the company had long known he had chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, although he had never requested an accommodation for it.

In mid-March, as the coronavirus pandemic struck fear throughout the world, Golden State Foods told many of its Conyers plant staff to work from home to the maximum extent possible, including Varnadoe and at least three other members of his department, according to the complaint.

Varnadoe said he already had a company laptop and was used to working from home outside normal business hours, which he said was common for a person in his position. He said that around April 10, he and three department colleagues were asked by their supervisors Dawn Warner and Tammy Rosser to return to work at the plant on April 14, despite their track record of being able to perform their jobs remotely.

By mid-April, multiple employees at the Conyers plant were known or suspected to have been infected with the coronavirus, Varnadoe said. He said he asked Warner if he could continue working from home because his age and limited lung function made him vulnerable to the virus, reminding her that he had recovered from lung cancer several years before.

He said that Warner told him to continue working remotely until she had spoken with human resources staff, which he did, but that on April 17 he received a call from her and two company executives in which they told him he was laid off effective immediately due to broader job reductions related to the pandemic.

In late July, Golden State Foods announced the opening of its latest 7,000-square-foot innovation center in Conyers, to be one of 10 such facilities worldwide that develop hundreds of new food products every year, as stated in a press release on the company's website that Varnadoe cited in his complaint.

Varnadoe wants unspecified damages for lost compensation and benefits as well as emotional harm, in addition to unspecified punitive damages, attorney fees and litigation costs.

Golden State Foods is a $5 billion company with about 6,000 staff that was established in the Los Angeles area in the 1940s and teamed up with McDonald's Corp. in the 1950s to become a major player in the food processing and distribution industries, it says on its website.

The company and counsel for Varnadoe did not immediately respond to requests for comment Tuesday.

Varnadoe is represented by Marissa R. "Missy" Torgerson and Steven E. Wolfe of Legare Attwood & Wolfe LLC.

Counsel information for Golden State Foods was not immediately available.

The case is Varnadoe v. Golden State Foods Corp., case number 1:21-cv-00964, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.

--Editing by Peter Rozovsky.

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