TOLEDO – Advocates for Basic Legal Equality (ABLE) is dealing with a lawsuit from one of their former employees who alleges age discrimination and retaliation against using time off to care for her dying mother.
Between ABLE, Toledo Legal Aid Society (TLAS), a predecessor organization, and its sister organization, Legal Aid of Western Ohio (LAWO), Denise Ford Saxon, 67, has worked for the legal nonprofits for over 30 years, and was working as ABLE’s human resources director before her termination on March 20.
According to a United States District Court lawsuit filed mid-July, Saxon informed ABLE in early 2026 that she might need time off to care for her unwell mother, and in February she submitted paperwork in line with the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA).
Her leave was scheduled to start March 1, and Saxon was informed of her termination on March 4, “without any warning whatsoever.”
Saxon’s mother died on March 10, and the suit said Saxon worked through the termination date to train her replacement on “urgent matters.”
The lawsuit says, “Defendant [ABLE] certified that Saxon was eligible for and granted her request for a leave of absence under the FMLA,” but that ABLE violated the FMLA by “discriminating and retaliating against Saxon…by interfering with, discouraging, restraining or denying Saxon the exercise of rights provided under the FMLA.”
Part of the lawsuit is geared towards how much younger Saxon’s replacement was.
The charges in the lawsuit are one violation of the FMLA and two charges of age discrimination, one under the Age Discrimination and Employment Act (ADEA), and another under the Ohio Revised Code (ORC).
Neither Saxon or ABLE have commented on the suit, but ABLE’s union, ABLE League of Justice (ALJ), National Organization of Legal Services Workers (NOLSW), United Auto Workers (UAW) Local 2320, prepared a statement concerning Saxon’s suit against ABLE.
*Addendem: The statement to which TFP linked above and to which it refers below no longer exists, as it was an Instagram post that was removed post-publication.
The ALJ “condemns in the strongest terms ABLE’s firing of HR Manager Denise Saxon as well as the firings of Administrative Assistant De’Asia Hairston and Development Associate Dawn Colon-Stephens, all of which occurred within a short time of each other earlier this year…we view these firings as an assault on the workforce as a whole and on the union bargaining unit in particular.” Currently, ALJ is in the midst of negotiating their first contract with ABLE.
According to the statement, employees started a letter writing campaign asking the ABLE board of directors to stop “anti-worker” behavior after the firings.
The union heard that the ABLE board of directors curtailed Executive Director of ABLE Makiedah Messam’s ability to unilaterally fire employees. This development was not directly communicated to the union, and they are unsure of its substance. The Toledo Free Press was not able to confirm this development either.
*Addendum: After the publication of this article, an ABLE representative reached out to TFP on Sept. 1 with a statement noting that the ABLE Board of Directors have not curtailed Messam’s authority to terminate employees.
The union alleges ABLE “spent $40k to try to bust our union campaign, so we remain vigilant against any further efforts to thwart our solidarity,” and provided a copy of an ABLE LM-10 from 2025. The Toledo Free Press verified the document with the U.S Department of Labor (DOL) Office of Labor-Management Standards (OLMS), which showed eight payments made to MPI Consulting totaling $38,938 between January and September of 2025. September was when the votes to unionize were officially counted, and the ALJ won their right to unionize.
