A longtime employee of CVS Pharmacy is alleging age and sex discrimination as well as wrongful termination.
Michelle Proctor filed her lawsuit in federal court against CVS Pharmacy Inc.
According to the complaint, Proctor was employed with CVS for 29 years, serving her last 11 years as a District Leader until she was fired February 1, 2022. Proctor says she faced staffing issues in her jurisdiction where employees were constantly calling out, resulting in early closures of the pharmacies and significant delays for customers receiving prescriptions.
When she was working with a team at a store to catch up on prescriptions, Proctor says pharmacist Michael Hidey intentionally deleted more than 400 prescriptions instead of placing them on hold as he had been directed. When asked about it later by upper management, Hidey said Proctor had told him to do so, according to the complaint.
Proctor says CVS declined to investigate the matter and instead fired her effective immediately. She says the termination was based in part on her age and sex as she was replaced by a younger male employee with considerably less experience, according to the complaint.
"Proctor’s supervisor and regional manager (Clifford Wright) also made it clear that he had an agenda to fill his team with all of his favorite people which over time became clear was younger men," the complaint states. "Wright made comments to his staff that he was proud of terminating all but one district manager, who were all generally older, speaking to who he’d plan to keep and who he wasn’t when making store visits.
"Proctor was the only female on his team, was the oldest and the most tenured. Being the only woman on the team, Ms. Proctor was excluded from team bonding activities and her input was not considered when making team plans."
Proctor seeks compensatory damages, punitive damages and other relief.