Herbruck Poultry Ranch, Inc. Pays $93,000 to Settle EEOC Harassment and Retaliation Suit
Egg Producer Harassed, Retaliated Against, and Constructively Discharged a Disabled Employee, Federal Agency Charged
DETROIT - A Saranac, Michigan egg producer will pay $93,000 and provide other relief to settle a disability harassment lawsuit brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the agency announced today. The EEOC charged that Herbruck Poultry Ranch, Inc. violated federal law by subjecting a worker to a hostile work environment because of her disability and by retaliating against her for complaining about the discriminatory treatment.
According to the EEOC's lawsuit, a disabled employee experienced frequent mocking by her supervisor and coworkers about her disability-related symptoms. The Commission further alleged that Herbruck failed to take adequate remedial measures in response to the harassment, retaliated against the worker for complaining about it, and constructively discharged her through escalating harassment, which included her supervisor's following her into a bathroom and initiating a confrontation with the disabled employee on her last day at work.
Such alleged conduct violates the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which mandates that covered employers provide a workplace free of disability-based harassment and prohibits retaliation against disabled employees who complain of harassment. The EEOC filed suit in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan in Grand Rapids (Case No. 1:19-cv-00165) after first attempting to reach a pre-litigation settlement through its conciliation process.
In addition to the monetary relief, the two and a half-year consent decree resolving the suit provides for injunctive relief, revisions and amendments to Herbruck's discrimination and harassment policies, and training for all employees on the requirements of the ADA.
"We are pleased with the relief provided by the consent decree," said Dale Price, the EEOC attorney who handled the case. "The revised policies and training provide meaningful protections for the employees of Herbruck from disability-based harassment. With this resolution, Herbruck has taken a positive step towards protecting the rights of disabled employees in the workplace."
Titus-Will to Pay $125,000 to Settle EEOC Discrimination Lawsuit
Prominent Pacific Northwest auto dealer Titus-Will has agreed to pay $125,000 and adopt anti-discrimination policies and training to resolve a disability discrimination lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the federal agency announced today.
According to the EEOC's lawsuit filed last year, Titus-Will sales consultant Lucas Perry told management he needed to take a day off work to have an MRI examination. When asked about the results of his examination when he returned, he told his managers that he had a brain tumor. Titus-Will fired him immediately, according to the agency.
Such alleged conduct violates the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which prohibits employers from discriminating based on disability or perceived disability. The EEOC filed suit in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington at Tacoma (EEOC v. Titus-Will Ford Sales, Inc. and Titus-Will Import Sales, Inc., Case No. 3:18-cv-05772-BHS) after an investigation by the EEOC and after first attempting to reach a pre-litigation settlement through its conciliation process.
The three-year consent decree settling the lawsuit provides Perry with $125,000 in damages for emotional distress, back pay and calls for the implementation of anti-discrimination policies and training. Titus-Will agreed to adopt disability discrimination policies, train new hires and current employees, and provide in-depth training to management on disability discrimination. The consent decree requires Titus-Will to hire a consultant to assist with the development of policies, procedures, and training.
"I am thankful to the EEOC for taking up my case. I feel like I got justice and that the changes to the company will make it much less likely that this will happen to someone else," said Perry.
EEOC Seattle Field Director Nancy Sienko said, "I applaud Titus Will's commitment to policies and training that will help ensure compliance with the Americans With Disabilities Act."
EEOC Senior Trial Attorney Teri Healy added, "The outcome here shows the importance of the EEOC's mission to enforce the ADA. The provisions of the consent decree will go a long way to ensure that Titus-Will has an appropriate response to the perceived disabilities of its employees in the future."
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Your website needs to be accessible—anything else is just bad business
Not making websites accessible means potentially losing the $500 million in spending power of the vast number of working-age adults with disabilities.
How To Ensure Your Website Is Accessible To Americans With Disabilities
More than one out of every four Americans is affected by some sort of disability that compromises their ability to carry out the routine activities of daily life in one or more ways.
The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) stipulates that website owners must design online content in a way that makes allowances for any access issues a disabled person may encounter when attempting to utilize that site.
Following that legislation, the World Wide Web Consortium’s Web Accessibility Initiative published Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.1). These guidelines are a list of recommendations for making online content more accessible to individuals with disabilities.
Business owners who don’t design for device access or provide equivalent alternatives for visual and auditory content are breaking the law. Just as significantly, though, they are denying themselves an opportunity to leverage a potential market that comprises approximately 61 million Americans.
Feds Reviewing Wrigley Field Renovations for ADA Compliance
The five-year renovation of Wrigley Field has prompted a lawsuit saying the ballpark is not compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act, leading to an investigation opened by local federal prosecutors.
Opelika strives to meet ADA requirements with renovations
Complying with the Americans with Disabilities Act often times means reworking designs and rethinking spaces to make them accessible to everyone. The standards established by the act have been altered over time, and continue being reworked 30 years later.
“With the ADA, the primary purpose is providing accessibility to everybody,” said Kevin Rice, Americans with Disabilities Act Compliance Officer for Opelika. “In layman’s terms, it’s evening the playing field.”
The Americans with Disabilities Act was created in 1990 as a set of guidelines for government and commercial buildings and property. It was revised in 2012, which stands as the current set of requirements.
“There are five portions of the ADA,” Rice said. “Often times, we talk about the government aspect and how it affects municipalities as well as private businesses, but it also reaches into human resources, employment applications and telecommunications with things like closed captioning on TV.”
To keep up with requirements, Opelika has recently reworked intersections along 10th Street, providing sidewalk accessibility through curb cuts and pedestrian signals, as well as repairing current sidewalks, Rice said.
Only about 15% of Opelika’s sidewalks currently meet ADA standards, and the city is still working on a lot of its buildings, Rice said.
The City of Opelika plans to spend about $5 million on ADA compliance for city services, city buildings and public spaces in the next three to five years, Rice said. There is also a five-year plan in place to evaluate every public-owned facility within the city and determine how they can be improved for accessibility.