Settlement Agreement: Camp Bravo
Erie Strayer Company and Local Union Settle EEOC Disability Discrimination Case
Erie Strayer Company, a concrete product and services company, located in Erie, Penn. will pay $15,000 and provide substantial injunctive relief to settle a disability discrimination lawsuit brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the federal agency announced. U.S. District Judge Nora Barry Fischer entered a consent order on June 16, 2015, resolving the case.
The EEOC alleged Erie Strayer Company subjected Thomas Young and other employees to unlawful medical inquiries and adverse employment actions resulting from such inquiries including coercion, intimidation, threats, and retaliation for refusing to comply with Strayer's inquiries.
Strayer's alleged conduct violated the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which protects employees from discrimination based on their actual or perceived disabilities. The EEOC filed suit in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. Erie Strayer Company, and the International Association of Bridge Structural, Ornamental and Reinforcing Iron Workers, Local Union No. 468 ; Case 1:14-cv-00199-NBF) after first attempting to reach a pre-litigation settlement through its conciliation process.
"Requiring employees to reveal the specific nature of their medical illness in order to deem the use of sick leave an excused absence is an unlawful disability-related inquiry under the ADA not justified by business necessity," said Regional Attorney Debra Lawrence of the EEOC's Philadelphia District Office, which oversees Pennsylvania, Delaware, West Virginia, Maryland and portions of New Jersey and Ohio. "Employees should not have to worry that their private and potentially harmful information will be used against them later to unfairly exclude them from jobs they could otherwise perform."
Kyklos Bearing International Will Pay $50,000 to Settle EEOC Disability Discrimination Lawsuit
Kyklos Bearing International, LLC (KBI), an Ohio bearings manufacturer, will pay $50,000 and provide significant relief to settle a federal disability discrimination lawsuit, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced today.
According to the EEOC's lawsuit, Donique Price worked at KBI's Sandusky, Ohio manufacturing facility, where she operated a motorized scooter to move products and materials to and from an assembly line. In 2012, the company's medical staff imposed restrictions on Price because she had been treated for breast cancer. The agency alleged, despite her breast cancer treatment and Price's own doctor clearing her to work without any restrictions, KBI refused to consider outside medical opinions and fired her.
Such alleged conduct violates the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which prohibits employers from discriminating against a person because he or she is disabled or perceived to be disabled. The EEOC filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio (EEOC v. Kyklos Bearing International, LLC, Case No. 3:13-cv-01662), after first attempting to reach a pre-litigation settlement through its voluntary conciliation process.
In addition to providing $50,000 in monetary relief to Price, the three-year consent decree resolving the lawsuit provides substantial equitable relief. The decree prohibits KBI from violating the ADA and requires the company make individualized assessments of a person's ability to perform job functions, in compliance with the ADA. The decree also provides for the EEOC to monitor the company's compliance with decree provisions.
Regional Attorney Debra Lawrence of the EEOC's Philadelphia District Office said, "We are pleased this settlement compensates Ms. Price for the harm she suffered and contains equitable relief designed to prevent future disability discrimination."
The EEOC Philadelphia District Office has jurisdiction over Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, West Virginia and parts of New Jersey and Ohio and prosecutes discrimination cases in Washington, D.C. and parts of Virginia.
EEOC Sues Plasma Biological Services for Disability Discrimination
Plasma Biological Services, LLC and Interstate Blood Bank, Inc. d/b/a Plasma Biological Services, which own and operate plasma collection centers throughout the southern United States, violated federal law by discriminating against an employee believed to be HIV-positive, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charged in a lawsuit filed today.
According to the EEOC's suit, Plasma Biological Services placed the employee on a deferred donor list after an initial screening for a plasma donation showed a viral marker for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). After the employee's supervisor learned that he had been placed on the deferred donor list, the employee was immediately discharged. Subsequent tests showed the employee was actually negative for HIV.
The EEOC also alleged that Plasma Biological Services maintained a policy of terminating any employee who tested positive for a viral marker. It also failed to maintain employee medical records separate from personnel files.
Firing an employee because of a perceived disability, or for having a record of disability, violates Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The EEOC filed suit (EEOC v. Plasma Biological Services, LLC and Interstate Blood Bank, Inc. d/b/a Plasma Biological Services, Civil Action No. 2:15-cv-02419) in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee, Western Division, after first attempting to reach a voluntary prelitigation settlement through its conciliation process. The agency's lawsuit seeks monetary relief for the employee in the form of back pay, compensatory and punitive damages, as well as a permanent injunction against further discrimination on the basis of disability.
"Discharging someone simply because the employer perceives a disability is a violation of the ADA," said Katharine W. Kores, district director of the EEOC's Memphis District Office, which has jurisdiction over Arkansas, Tennessee and portions of Mississippi. "The EEOC remains committed to vigilantly enforcing the ADA."
Plasma Biological Services are Tennessee companies with their principal offices in Memphis, Tennessee. With more than 30 locations across 14 states, the companies are engaged in the business of drawing human source plasma and selling it for profit.
IHSA settles lawsuit over disabled student-athletes
Galesburg Register-Mail
Disabled prep student athletes will be given full opportunities to compete in certain sports under a settlement with the Illinois High School Association that Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan announced Wednesday.
The settlement allows disabled student athletes to compete and earn points toward a team state championship in swimming, diving and track and field. It resolves a lawsuit brought in 2012 by Mary Kate Callahan, a former disabled swimmer at Fenwick High School in the Chicago suburb of Oak Park.
The IHSA oversees high school sports in Illinois. A spokesman didn't immediately respond to a request for comment on the settlement. Madigan's lawsuit charged the IHSA with violating federal laws affecting the disabled.
Two recent Aspen incidents cast spotlight on service dogs and their required role
Summit Daily News
As dog-friendly and knowledgeable a town Aspen is, public confusion hangs over support animals and the rights of their owners.
Two public incidents involving owners of support dogs have emerged in Aspen over the last two months. One concerns a federal lawsuit over a service dog at an Aspen condominium complex. The other centers around an Aspen man who is forbidden from bringing his dog to a downtown coffee shop.
The ADA at 25: Disability by the numbers
Business Management Daily
On July 26, 1990, President George H.W. Bush signed into law the Americans with Disabilities Act, which prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities in employment, as well as transportation, public accommodations, commercial facilities, telecommunications and state and local government services.
To commemorate the 25th anniversary of the ADA’s enactment, here’s a look at some of the hard numbers that define disability at work, as compiled by the U.S. Census Bureau.
56.7 million
Number of people in the United States with a disability, according to the Census Bureau’s Survey of Income and Program Participation.
19%
Percentage of U.S. citizens with an ADA-covered disability.
$20,885
Median earnings in the past 12 months for people with a disability.
68%
Percentage of disabled employees’ median earnings, compared to the nationwide median of $30,928.
30.6 million
Number of people 15 and older who have a movement impairment, such as walking or climbing stairs.
8.1 million
Number of people 15 and older with a vision impairment.
7.6 million
Number of people 15 and older who have a hearing impairment.
3.6 million
Number of people 15 and older who use a wheelchair.
4 million
Yearly visits to the website of the Job Accommodation Network (askjan.org), which provides free, expert and confidential guidance to individuals and employers seeking information on workplace accommodations and disability employment issues. The Job Accommodation Network is a service of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Disability Employment Policy.
Is Telecommuting a Reasonable ADA Accommodation?
Corporate Counsel
The employment lawyer's adage that "no good deed goes unpunished" was thrown into sharp relief by the Sixth Circuit recently when it held that telecommuting — even when offered to other employees — is not necessarily a reasonable accommodation for a disabled employee. Reversing a divided panel, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the Eastern District of Michigan Court's grant of summary judgment to Ford Motor Company (Ford) in a claim of disability discrimination under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). E.E.O.C. v. Ford Motor Co., Case No. 12-2484, 2015 WL 1600305 (6th Cir. Apr. 10, 2015).
Telecommuting May Not Always Be a Reasonable Accommodation Under the ADA
JD Supra
An en banc panel of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals (Court) recently upheld the trial court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of Ford Motor Company in EEOC v. Ford Motor Company, on the basis that telecommuting was not a reasonable accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act for an employee suffering from a debilitating disability because on-site attendance was an essential function of the plaintiff’s job (see our prior coverage of the case).