"Abbott Labs sued for alleged ADA, human rights and whistleblower protection violations", 8 March 2025

Two former Abbott Laboratories employees have sued the company, claiming managers retaliated against them after they outed the Scarborough plant for rushing COVID-19 tests, including defective ones, to the public.

The women allege the company retaliated by creating a hostile environment, failing to accommodate their disabilities and not allowing them to work from home. At the time, the company was requiring its employees to work in the office four days a week.

In two separate federal lawsuits filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Portland, Jennifer Campinell, of Durham, and Jessica Mayhew, of Minot, accused the medical device manufacturing company of violating the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Maine Human Rights Act and the Maine Whistleblower Protection Act….

...In a short emailed statement, the company said it “promotes and values a welcoming work environment and is committed to fair treatment of all its employees” and called the lawsuits “without merit.”

Campinell said she discovered over four months that up to 33% of the lots produced at the Scarborough facility were defective but were being released to the market without any corrective action…

In the suit, Campinell alleged that when she presented her findings to leadership, she was met with “opposition, hostility and public insults.”

She later presented the results to corporate leadership...

Campinell claims that management and co-workers retaliated against her for alerting corporate leaders to these issues and for implementing a new training process that “took too much time,” according to the lawsuit…

In the suit, Campinell said the company denied her requests to work remotely, …, and treated her with public disdain and harassment.

Mayhew’s lawsuit closely mirrors Campinell’s complaints: refusal to allow four days of remote work, retaliation, and treating with disdain…