Medical service provider to pay $21,500 in disability discrimination case
Posted February 23, 2017
A medical services provider serving the Muskegon region in Michigan will pay $21,500 and furnish other relief to settle a disability discrimination lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the agency announced on February 17. The EEOC had charged that the company violated federal law by firing an employee on the basis of her medical condition.
According to the EEOC's lawsuit, the employee worked for the company as an outreach-enrollment coordinator. Before she began work, the company required that she submit to a post-offer, pre-employment physical. The medical specialist who conducted that physical recommended that the employee be put on a medical hold due to medications she was taking. Notwithstanding the recommended medical hold, the company allowed the employee to work for over a month. Eventually, the company fired her based on the recommended medical hold, the EEOC said.
Firing an employee on the basis of disability violates the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). And an employer is liable for the actions of its agent, such as a medical specialist who conducts pre-employment physicals.
In granting the EEOC's motion for partial summary judgment, the court found that "this case presents a peculiar fact pattern that represents a textbook case for unlawful discrimination under the regarded-as-disabled prong of the ADA."
In addition to providing monetary relief to the employee, the company entered into a three-year consent decree requiring it to develop and implement policies that comply with the ADA. The decree further requires the company to conduct annual training for employees and managers, to post an employee notice regarding federal anti-discrimination laws, and to provide periodic reports to the EEOC.
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