VICTORY: Health Department Worker Gets Justice!

Ruth Berry, an animal control officer at the Metro Health Department was terminated in a 2006 incident related to “improper and unlawful euthanization”, even though Ruth was simply assisting a doctor who was actually conducting the procedure. While the doctor was suspended for the incident, it was Ruth who was fired.

After a lengthy legal fight with the Union by her side, Ruth’s firing was overturned by a judge, who ordered that Ruth should be hired back with full benefits and some $20,000 in backpay. “It wasn’t fair that I was fired for helping out a co-worker,” Ruth says. “I love my job and I love animals. Even though mistakes were made that day, none of them justified me being fired. I’m grateful that the Union and their attorneys stuck by me the whole time”.