Your fiancé has a fairly common workplace problem. And it is probably stressing her out terribly. But as you have been told, there's nothing that would stop her employer from firing her if she were to go to them and complain. She would probably be able to get unemployment for a while if they fired her for a non misconduct reason. But unemployment is no substitute for a good job.
There's a very small likelihood that if she quits the job due to this situation, she'd be approved for unemployment benefits. Because the first question they ask is "What did you do to attempt to solve the problem before you quit. Had you exhausted all reasonable alternatives to quitting before you quit the job?"
Likewise if your girlfriend was thinking about a discrimination complaint. (Which incidentally it doesn't sound like she has much of one at all at this point.)She files a complaint with the EEOC, and the employer says, "We were given no opportunity to solve the problem, we were not even aware that there was a problem."
Has your girlfriend mentioned this issue to her slow co workers? Has she ever said something like, "Here, Mary, why don't you do the next two, since I've done so many tonight?" Or why doesn't she just control her pace a bit, so there was more for the others to do? I have frequently seen situations like this.
Some people are just natural "get 'er done" people. They'll keep up jumping up and getting another client, will take full responsibility for getting everything done, and will keep at it, keep doing more than they reasonably should be doing until they're hopelessly behind, and unfortunately sometimes, making errors.
And of course if someone just keeps taking on more and more, the other people in the work group are grinning with glee. She seems to want to do this so badly, we'll let her! And meantime, the overworker is getting madder by the minute, and the others will, if the supervisor comes by, carefully arrange to make a passing effort to look as though they're doing their share. So this first person is working herself into a froth, and it's not fair and it's not right, and you know what? The patients are getting seen, so the supervisor is happy, and the overworker is the only one who gets upset about this whole thing.
She needs to get a little smarter about controlling her workload. It's not her problem if the patients don't get seen in a timely fashion, and have long wait times. She's doing her best. If that's more than she can do, or if the others aren't carrying their weight, it's the supervisor's problem. If she wasn't willing to pitch in and do the extra work just because, the supervisor would either have to hire more staff or make sure every member of the staff was doing more of their share.
Yes, she can talk to the supervisor, but she should do it soon, before she gets any madder, and without demands, anger or threats (which she has none, you now know.) She might just mention that she feels she is doing a lot more of the scans than the other members of staff, and that she feels the work distribution system may need some adjustment. Of course she shouldn't indicate that her co workers are lazy slackers, or that she's so mad she's about to quit. They will not want to lose her if she is a good employee, and she now knows what her choices are. Either work the situation out internally or find another job. Because no, they don't have to be fair, and yes, they could fire her legally for about anything, including complaints about her job.
