Former Head of Knight Cardiovascular Institute at OHSU Sues Over Pay Cut

More evidence of discontent among top-level doctors and researchers at Oregon Health & Science University emerged today as the former head of the Knight Cardiovascular Institute sued the institution for cutting his pay.

Dr. Sanjiv Kaul filed a complaint in Multnomah County Circuit Court alleging that OHSU violated Oregon employment law by lowering his salary by a quarter to $370,000 a year from $500,000. The suit argues OHSU justified the cut with a flawed reading of Oregon’s Equal Pay Act, signed into law in 2017. Kaul, 73, also claims that OHSU violated age discrimination laws.

Kaul seeks $120,548 in back wages and $1 million for emotional distress, stress and anxiety.

Kaul is the second high-profile researcher backed by money from Phil and Penny Knight to express dissatisfaction with OHSU. On Dec. 3, Dr. Brian Druker, developer of the revolutionary cancer drug Gleevec, said he was stepping down as CEO of the Knight Cancer Institute because OHSU had “forgotten our mission” and is no longer a place to do cutting-edge research.

Druker’s move came six weeks after medical school dean Dr. David Jacoby sued for $6.2 million, alleging that he had been unfairly blamed for how OHSU had handled the case of a doctor accused of taking upskirt photos of a female student.

Kaul hired the same lawyer representing Jacoby: Paul Buchanan at Buchanan Angeli Altschul & Sullivan, LLP.

“With less than one month’s notice and without any legitimate rationale or change in plaintiff’s job duties, defendant Oregon Health & Science University announced that it would reduce plaintiff Dr. Sanjiv Kaul’s pay by twenty-five percent, asserting that it was doing so to comply with a new Oregon law on equal pay,” Kaul’s complaint says. “In fact, the Oregon Equal Pay Act, which became fully effective in 2019, expressly prohibits an employer from reducing an employee’s compensation to achieve pay equity.”

The Oregon Equal Pay Act prohibits employers from paying different wages to workers doing work of “comparable” character. It was designed to equalize pay among men and women by prohibiting employers from asking job candidates about previous salaries, which, for women, are almost always lower.

Kaul was a high-profile hire for OHSU when they recruited him from the University of Virginia Medical School in 2005 to serve as chief of cardiology. At the time, OHSU had just two cardiac surgeons, three vascular surgeons and six cardiologists, Kaul says in his complaint. Kaul started the Kaul Laboratory that year and began raising millions of dollars to fund it, the complaint says.

“In 2012, plaintiff was instrumental in securing funding from Nike founder and philanthropist Phil Knight to establish the Knight Cardiovascular Institute,” the complaint says. Kaul became the founding director of the institute, a job he held until 2018. During that period, Kaul raised more than $150 million to fund the unit’s research. He gave $1 million of his own money, too.

In terms of the Equal Pay Act, Kaul argues that “unique additional duties rendered the work he performed not `comparable’ to peers with whom OHSU sought to compare him.”

OHSU didn’t immediately return an email seeking comment on Kaul’s lawsuit. In the past, OHSU has declined to comment on pending litigation.