Philips Subsidiary Allegedly Discriminated against Whistleblower who Claims Products Linked to Fires

Framingham, Mass. – Former Lifeline Systems salesperson Denise Rock is suing the company claiming that she was unfairly terminated for raising concerns over allegedly fatal product faults.

She claims the Philips subsidiary began discriminating against her when she reported to company attorneys that a medical alert device manufactured by another subsidiary, Health Watch, was likely the source of a fire that killed a number of users.

In a complaint filed at US District Court in Boston on August 1, Rock says she was let go from the Framingham-based company in June 2012 shortly after filing discrimination charges with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination (MCAD) and the US Equal Employee Opportunity Commission.

The complaint claims that in September 2007, Rock learned from a manager at Health Watch about a user of the medical alert device dying in a fire likely caused by the equipment, along with six other subscribers who had died in similar circumstances.

“Ms. Rock discovered that there were problems with the transmitting devices … For a variety of reasons, the transmittal devices had (and may still have) a tendency to overheat, catch fire and cause the homes of elderly residents to be engulfed in fires. On many occasions these fires have resulted in the deaths of the elderly subscribers. However, in many cases the cause of the fires was hidden by the fact that the home and the device had been destroyed by the fire,” the complaint alleges.

It claims that Rock immediately reported the issue to company attorneys, one of whom was the Philips Ethics Officer.

In early October, 2007, she was then “informed that her job and compensation were being changed in a manner which would clearly result in her having less income.”

It’s alleged that the action was “in no way justified by her job performance,” and she complained to Philips attorneys, “that it was her belief that she was being retaliated against for reporting the fire deaths.”

Despite being one of the top people in regards to her sales and revenue results, she allegedly received “unfairly low job skills ratings” that were given to her “in order to justify retaliatory treatment and/or disciplinary action against her,” the complaint alleges.

The complaint also alleges that the category of job skills used in performance reviews is “subjective” and provides justification for managers to terminate salespeople despite positive sales records.

In 2008, she claims to have further received an “unfairly low performance evaluation” and smaller bonus than “she should have earned for exceeding her sales goals.”

The complaint alleges that, “This is one of a number of the actions [the company] took against Ms. Rock that was not as obviously discriminatory or retaliatory as terminating her employment, but which was taken to make her job as unpleasant as possible in the hope that she would resign.”

Rock continued to receive reports of injuries, and “In early 2009,” the complaints claims that she “became aware that at least one patient had died due to being strangled by a Lifeline cord.”
In October, 2009 another salesperson allegedly informed her about a report that said Philips Lifeline’s (another subsidiary) own units “also had issues with catching fire.”

“Ms. Rock felt so upset by learning that Philips Lifeline units might cause fires (and thus death) that she contacted the in-house attorney she had initially informed in 2007 of the defective Health Watch equipment. Ms. Rock told the attorney that she had knowledge that one of the Philips Lifeline units had spontaneously burst into flames, and how upset this made her. The attorney assured Ms. Rock that the Quality Team was working on this matter,” the complaint alleges.

In December, 2009, she claims to have received an email indicating that two Lifeline subscribers had died in a fire, and again informed her supervisor and the attorney.

According to the complaint, around this time she “began to hear rumors that she was going to be fired,” and that she allegedly “felt that there was a coordinated effort to make her feel that she was going to be fired.”

Despite making a complaint to the company’s human resources department, she allegedly continued to be subject to discrimination throughout 2010, 2011, and 2012.

She then claims she was placed on a “Performance Improvement Plan” in January 2012, which entailed “completely unrealistic and unattainable goals for Ms. Rock to achieve,” and was an effort by the company to “force Ms. Rock to resign” or set up a “situation where Ms. Rock’s employment would be terminated.”

On March 12, 2012 she was given a Final Warning Letter for “supposedly unsatisfactory job performance.”

The complaint alleges that within six weeks of her complaints to the MCAD and the EEOC, she was terminated from her position on June 14, 2012; she also filed a whistleblower violation with the US Department of Labor in May 2012.

Rock also claims that despite reaching her sales targets she was discriminated against due to her age and gender.

“Although retaliation against Ms. Rock for her whistleblowing was part of the reason for the unfair treatment to which she was being subjected, and for which her employment was terminated, discrimination against Ms. Rock due to her age and her gender are also a reason for the unfair treatment. Younger employees, male employees, and in particular younger female employees, were held to a less strict performance standard than Ms. Rock had been held to, as an older employee and a female,” the complaint alleges.

The complaint alleges violations of state and federal laws regarding retaliation, and discrimination based on whistleblower status, and age and gender.

The only defendant named in the suit, Lifeline Systems, has yet to file an answer to the complaint.

The case will be heard by Magistrate Judge Marianne Bowler.

This article was produced for Open Media Boston's Open Court Project.