NYC resident claims employee discrimination due to long COVID disability

One New York City resident claims his previous employer wrongfully terminated him due to employment discrimination regarding his long COVID disability.

Matthew Boyd is a 33-year-old from Manhattan who previously worked as a senior manager at the technology homeownership company, Landis. Boyd started the position last September with an agreement to work remotely due to his disability and scheduled doctors' appointments.

"Short-term memory issues, multi-tasking is very tough. Speech is tough, at times, finding the right words. Physically, I'm in a ton of pain," said Boyd to NBC New York. He noted his neurological distress during the in-person interview experiencing a "drilling" headache sensation.

Long COVID is a condition of lingering symptoms that develop after recovering from the initial infection. The issues can range from brain fog, chest pain, difficulty breathing, heart palpitations, depression and anxiety.

Millions of Americans are fighting the disabling, incessant impacts long COVID while struggling to maintain a job or receive disability benefits.

These symptoms have drastically altered the everyday life of individuals, including those wishing to retain employment. According to a recent report, Association of Post–COVID-19 Condition Symptoms and Employment Status, one in eight long-haul patients deals with unemployment.

Boyd has been infected by coronavirus at least five times within the last three years, with each additional contagion exacerbating his symptoms, but he was able to push through in balancing work-life responsibilities.

In order to describe the nature of his long-haul condition, Boyd says that he presented his boss with the previous NBC New York series, Living with COVID for the Long Haul, in which he was featured as a long-haul patient.

According to Boyd, his previous manager requested his presence in-office despite the earlier remote work agreement and designated a seemingly impossible task that Boyd says he could not complete within time and outside his skill set.

"I was given a project that I was set up to fail. I'm a decently smart person, but I can't figure out what I don't know. I wouldn't have been able to do it regardless of COVID, but COVID makes it that much harder for me to do something like this -- it's a double whammy now," explained Boyd.

Nine days after creating a plan for the project, Boyd says he was terminated from the position without an official warning or reasoning besides the slow progress on his last assignment.

NBC New York reached out to Landis for comment, to which Landis replied: "Landis does not publicly disclose its current or former employees’ confidential human resources information, but we can confirm that Mr. Boyd’s purported COVID-19 condition played no role in, and was not connected in any way, to his separation from employment with Landis."

New York litigation lawyer, Mark Shirian, specializes in employment law, employment discrimination and harassment. Shirian represents Boyd after recently filing a charge of discrimination to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) New York District asking the EEOC to investigate the actions and conduct by Landis.

Shirian provided NBC New York with a copy of the filed complaint.

"As we as a society are navigating life after the COVID-19 pandemic, it is essential for employers to adopt comprehensive policies and practices that promote equal treatment and reasonable accommodations for employees with long COVID or any other medical condition, said attorney Mark Shirian in a statement shared with News 4.

Under the U.S. Americans with Disabilities Act, long COVID is considered a disability if the person is suffering from certain factors, such as a history of physical or mental impairment that substantially limits life activity.