AUSTIN (KXAN) — A Travis County employee filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) last month claiming he was demoted — and threatened with termination — after taking medical leave to treat stage 4 cancer.
Joseph Lee Perry’s complaint says he worked in the county’s Purchasing Department for almost 20 years and hasn’t had documented performance issues in all that time.
The complaint says in February 2021, Perry was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer. In February 2024, he applied for and received short-term disability leave, which he began taking in March.
When he returned, a couple weeks later, the complaint says Perry’s boss informed Perry he would need to “have a one-on-one meeting…Less than two weeks later, once he returned from vacation, [name redacted by KXAN] called me into the one-on-one meeting and used the opportunity to inform me that I was being offered a demotion,” the complaint says.
“By law, the FMLA [Family and Medical Leave Act] requires that if an employee takes leave that that employee be allowed to return to the position that they left,” Perry’s attorney, Tanner Scheef with Kaplan Law Firm, said. “They have to have a reasonable time to come back to work, show that they can still do their job, and that’s why we had concerns.”
Perry claims the demotion included a lower pay scale, and that he was replaced with someone he had actually hired years prior. In addition, Perry said his boss threatened to fire him if he didn’t take the demotion the very next day.
“Being demoted for taking care of my health is humiliating, and has caused additional suffering for a family who is already grappling with the fact they may lose their father and husband. I fight, not only for me, but for the next person. No one should have to fear retaliation for taking protected medical leave,” Perry told KXAN.
“Travis County understands and sympathizes with the challenges Mr. Perry is facing and continues to be supportive of his circumstances. Mr. Perry reports to an independently appointed official, the Travis County Purchasing Agent. The Purchasing Agent looks forward to the continued conversations with Mr. Perry to address his concerns as he transitions back to work from his leave of absence. Out of respect to Mr. Perry’s privacy, it would not be appropriate to publicly discuss the details of his employment,”
Hector Nieto, Travis County spokesperson
But Perry did want to publicly discuss those details through his attorney. Scheff told KXAN that complaints have been filed with both the county’s human resources department and through the EEOC complaint. They say it’s an issue that often goes underreported.
“Much like my client they’re dealing with potentially fatal health issues and they don’t want to spend that precious time trying to solve an issue that they themselves didn’t create,” Scheef said.
“From this point he is willing to fight in whatever way it needs to be done to make sure that this doesn’t happen again.”