Becker's Hospital Review

33 WOMEN'S LEADERSHIP Former employee sues Alliance HealthCare Services over claims of unequal pay, whistleblower retaliation By Erica Carbajal A former account executive claims Ir- vine, Calif.-based Alliance Health- Care Services fired her aer she re- quested to reduce her hours to accommodate breast cancer treatment demands and raised concerns that she was not paid equitably compared to her male colleagues, according to a lawsuit filed against the healthcare ser- vices provider. Kristen Paltz filed a federal discrimination lawsuit against the company Jan. 7, alleging unequal pay and whistleblower retaliation. e complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court of Connecticut, seeks punitive and compen- satory damages, among other relief. Ms. Paltz began working at Alliance in 1995. In 2011, she was diagnosed with breast can- cer and continued working full-time through 2017, when she approached the company's management to limit her workweek to four days because of the demands of her treat- ment, according to the complaint. Alliance allegedly approved the request. In 2018, Ms. Paltz was assigned to do the marketing for two competing companies, one of which Alliance had an ownership stake in. e complaint claims Ms. Paltz's supervisors dismissed legal and regulatory concerns she raised regarding the matter. Ms. Paltz was consequently met with increasing hostility from her supervisor, according to the lawsuit. As a result of the retaliatory hostility, Ms. Pal- tz requested to be assigned to a new supervi- sor, which human resources denied. She began raising concerns over unequal pay in the spring of 2019, alleging many of her male colleagues were paid significantly more despite being in the same role with less expe- rience. Aer months of inquiring about the pay discrepancies, Ms. Paltz was offered a pay increase in December 2019, though still far off from that of her male colleagues, according to the lawsuit. e company's vice president al- legedly told Ms. Paltz "too many accommoda- tions" had been made for her during a conver- sation discussing a pay increase — a reference to the earlier schedule accommodations made for her cancer treatment. e lawsuit alleges Ms. Paltz continued to ex- press concern over unequal pay and unlaw- ful business practices through January 2020 and in April, she was fired under the "reduc- tion-in-work" pretext due to the pandemic. Ms. Paltz was the only account executive out of 16 in the company's northeast region to be terminated under the pretext, according to the complaint. Rhonda Longmore-Grund, president and CEO of Alliance HealthCare Services, re- sponded in a Jan. 12 email to Becker's: "As a mission-focused, values-driven organization, we are dismayed by the allegations contained in this lawsuit, and intend to vigorously defend our company and team members named. We serve more than a million pa- tients a year, who are each facing a health- care injury, illness or cancer. Alliance insists on and is recognized for our compassionate care, and for our culture of compliance and integrity – which are supported by a myriad of policies and procedures our team members proudly uphold. "Like so many healthcare organizations across the U.S., the pandemic caused circum- stances [that] required restructuring in 2020, including a number of role eliminations; these were very difficult decisions for a com- pany that sees its team members as family. Again, we intend to defend this lawsuit and will not comment further on these allegations at this time." n How leadership criteria leave out women of color By Iain Carlos C urrent conceptions of leadership often exclude wom- en of color from positions of power in organizations, but this issue can be remedied with the right steps, according to a Harvard Business Review article. Women of color face a double disadvantage in ascending organizations' hierarchies, as the leadership archetype in the U.S. centers on straight white men and values mascu- line leadership attributes, according to the article. To combat this problem, organizations can alter their values so they recognize the often unseen skills and knowledge of marginalized groups, and thus better recognize the leader- ship abilities of women of color. Some of the beneficial alterations companies can make on this front, according to the article, include: 1. Valuing resistance capital, or the skills communities of color gain resisting systems of oppression. Resistance cap- ital is a powerful tool that can be drawn on to help spur company growth. 2. Valuing navigational capital, or the skills communities of color gain by navigating institutions not built with them in mind. Female leaders of color can teach these skills to oth- er employees and help organizations retain female workers of color. 3. Valuing linguistic capital, or the communication skills gained by communicating in different languages and cul- tures. Leaders who have linguistic capital can help reduce an organization's decision bias and improve company commu- nication overall. n

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