Regional grocery chain Weis Markets, Inc. has settled a sexual harassment and disability discrimination lawsuit filed by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) on behalf of an employee, the federal agency announced. The charges included mandating that an employee participate in an employee assistance program (EAP) in order to keep her job.
According to a consent decree, Weis Markets, which is headquartered in Sunbury, Pennsylvania, will pay the employee $75,000 and revise its policies regarding EAP participation to settle the lawsuit.
According to the EEOC’s lawsuit, a male supervisor at Weis Markets’ grocery store in Mifflintown, Pennsylvania, subjected a female employee to unwanted physical contact and sexual comments. Another supervisor witnessed some of this conduct. When the female employee reported the conduct to the general manager, Weis Markets “failed to take reasonable action to end the harassment and prevent its reoccurrence,” the EEOC charged.
The EEOC further alleged that Weis Markets later required the female employee to participate in the company’s employee assistance program (EAP) as a mandatory condition of her continuing employment. The EAP would have required medical examinations or disability-related inquiries and included mental health counseling, even though, according to EEOC, the employer lacked any “reasonable belief based on objective evidence that the female employee was unable to perform essential functions of her job or presented a direct threat to herself or others.”
When the employee refused to participate in the company’s EAP, the EEOC charged, Weis Markets suspended and then fired her.
The EEOC brought claims against Weis Markets under the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits sexual harassment in employment, and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA), which prohibit disability discrimination and retaliation in employment. The EEOC filed suit in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, after first attempting to reach a pre-litigation settlement through the agency’s conciliation process.
The EEOC and Weis Markets subsequently settled the case before the federal court made any findings. On June 17, the federal court approved the decree, resolving the litigation.
In addition to paying $75,000 to the female employee, Weis Markets agreed that it is prohibited from creating a sexually hostile work environment; from requiring employees to participate in the EAP when that would entail unlawful medical examinations or disability-related inquiries; and from taking adverse actions against employees because they refused to undergo unlawful medical examinations or disability-related inquiries in the EAP.
Weis Markets is also required to create a policy about referral of employees to the EAP.
EEOC commended Weis Markets for working in good faith to resolve the case. “This settlement provides fair compensation to the aggrieved employee in question, and going forward, it also promises to greatly benefit Weis Markets’ workers, the company, and the public interest,” commented EEOC Regional Attorney Debra Lawrence.
EEOC District Director Jamie Williamson said an employer requirement that an individual worker must participate in an EAP could violate rights protected by the ADA, including the “right to be free from medical examinations and disability-related inquiries that are not job-related and consistent with business necessity.”
The Weis chain operates more than 200 stores in the seven states of Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, Delaware, New Jersey, New York and West Virginia.
Source: EEOC
Topics Lawsuits
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