Wal-Mart Stores Inc. will pay a former employee $75,000 to settle a federal disability discrimination lawsuit filed over the company’s alleged actions in regard to an employee at a store Hodgkins, Ill.
The lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), charged Wal-Mart with failing to accommodate Nancy Stack, a cancer survivor with physical limitations, and subjected her to harassment based on her disability. Stack worked at a Walmart store in Hodgkins, Ill.
Wal-Mart’s alleged conduct violates the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability, which can include denying reasonable accommodations to employees with disabilities and subjecting them to a hostile work environment, the EEOC said.
As a workplace accommodation, Stack needed a chair and a modified schedule. EEOC alleged that while the store provided Stack with a modified schedule for a period of time, it revoked the accommodation for no stated reason. Further, according to EEOC, the store did not ensure that a chair was in Stack’s work area, telling her that she had to haul a chair from the furniture department to her work area, a task that was difficult, given her disability.
Making matters even worse, EEOC alleged that a co-worker harassed Stack by calling her “cripple” and “chemo brain.”
EEOC filed suit in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.; Civil Action No. 15-cv-5796).
Wal-Mart will pay $75,000 in monetary relief to Stack as part of a consent decree settling the suit. The two-year decree also provides additional, non-monetary relief intended to improve the Hodgkins store’s workplace. Under the decree, the store will train employees on disability discrimination and requests for reasonable accommodations under the ADA.
The Walmart store will also monitor requests for accommodation and complaints of disability discrimination and report those to EEOC.
Source: EEOC
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