A New York City plastic surgeon is being sued for allegedly forcing an employee to work while she was COVID-positive, even asking her to fake test results to get back to the office.
Dr. Ryan Neinstein, who operates out of the Bergdorf Goodman building on the Upper East Side and has an Instagram account with 40,000 followers, is being accused of constantly texting staffer Christina Flores, 33, to try and get her back to work.
Flores said she had only been working for Neinstein about a month when she contracted COVID in December 2020, just prior to the vaccine rollout.
She says her boss told her to work from home even as her condition got worse , according to a filing made in Manhattan Supreme Court.
'Every day was constant calls, texts, emails,' Flores told The New York Post. 'He was relentless and the more I tried to work through it, it just wasn't good enough for him.'
Dr. Ryan Neinstein, who operates out of the Bergdorf Goodman building on the Upper East Side and has an Instagram account with 40,000 followers, is being accused of constantly texting staffer Christina Flores, 33, to try and get her back to work
Flores said she had only been working for Neinstein about a month when she contracted COVID in December 2020, just prior to the vaccine rollout
The suit accuses Neinstein of demanding Flores use nasal rinse and 'virus-killing' nose swabs in an attempt produce a false negative test to get her back to work.
She felt she was targeted by Neinstein when she finally did return to the office.
'He gets away with it,' Flores, who said she was fearful of losing her job, alleges. 'He's a plastic surgeon in Manhattan. He feels he has money and power.'
'I had no choice but to abide by his command,' she added.
On December 4, 2020, just three days after receiving her positive test and while registering a high fever and headaches, Neinstein texted her, according to court documents: '[the office's] voicemail does not work…I don't care what you're doing. I want it fixed in next 15 minutes,' the suit claims.
Flores says Neinstein told her to work from home even as her condition got worse , according to a filing made in Manhattan Supreme Court
She adds Neinstein told her to work from home even as her condition got worse , according to a filing made in Manhattan Supreme Court
He texted her again later in the day: 'I understand you're sick, but if you can't do your job I will find someone else.'
As she continued to remain COVID-positive, on December 21, she alleges Neinstein asked her to go through the process of obtaining the false positive, which she refused.
She tested negative four days later on Christmas and returned to work shortly thereafter but things continued to be tense with Neinstein.
'I returned back to work and I felt like was a target for him,' Flores said. 'He treated me so poorly. He always talked down to me. It was never good enough.
'I felt like it was retaliation because I had time off,' Flores added. 'But I was working from home. I never took the time off.'
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ShareFlores also accuses Neinstein of interviewing her for a job opportunity (that she passed on before eventually accepting) while he was conducting liposuction on an unconscious patient.
'How he interviewed me while a poor patient was on the table not aware,' she said. 'And how he treated me when I had COVID.'
She eventually moved on to another employer but Neinstein filed legal action against Flores herself, saying she poached employees from him after leaving in a March 2021 filing.
Flores' lawyer Matthew Blit says the suit is frivolous and he's filed a motion to toss the case.
'This profit-hungry doctor risked the lives of every employee and patient while unlawfully discriminating against Ms. Flores,' Blit said. 'Because Ms. Flores bravely refused to fake a covid test she was retaliated against in a clearly frivolous lawsuit for millions of dollars that will be immediately tossed by the court.'
Flores' lawyer Matthew Blit says Neinstein's suit against his client is frivolous and he's filed a motion to toss the case
An attorney for Neinstein, Steve Polyakov, denies the allegations
'Ms. Flores' ultimate victory will serve as a deterrent to other scoundrels out there that want to illegally jeopardize the health and safety of their clients and employees,' he added.
An attorney for Neinstein, Steve Polyakov, denies the allegations.
'Neinstein Plastic Surgery, PLLC is an equal opportunity employer. We take allegations of discrimination and harassment seriously.'
'We deny all of Ms. Flores's allegations of wrongdoing and look forward to the opportunity to establish a complete and factually accurate account of the underlying events,' Polyakov added.
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