Walmart must pay damages in a disability discrimination lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the federal agency said Friday.
A Wisconsin federal court jury ruled that Walmart must pay more than $125 million in damages in a disability discrimination lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the federal agency announced Friday.
That verdict was quickly reduced Thursday to a statutory maximum of $300,000 by the judge in the case, which involved the termination of Marlo Spaeth, a 16-year employee who has Down syndrome, from the Walmart Supercenter in Manitowoc, Wisconsin.
But Walmart still may have to pay additional money for Spaeth’s back pay, front pay, as well as for interest and litigation costs, an EEOC spokeswoman told CNBC. The judge will determine those amounts at a later date.
The EEOC’s complaint in Green Bay court alleged that Walmart in its firing of Spaeth violated the Americans with Disabilities Act, which prohibits discrimination based on a person’s disability.
In the lawsuit, the federal agency said the retailer changed Spaeth’s longtime work schedule and refused to accommodate her requests for different hours, even though she faced challenges because of her disability.
The complaint also said she struggled to keep up with the new hours, leading to disciplinary action for absenteeism.
Ultimately, the company fired Spaeth, despite her having received positive performance reviews from managers.
It also declined to rehire her, even after her mother and sister tried to intervene and find a solution, the EEOC said.
#disability #accessibility #workplace
i'm glad marlo won the case, but she should have never been discriminated against in the first place
No one is expecting store employees to be experts on every type of physical or mental challenge, but they should be expected to know and follow a set of general guidelines which tell them how to respond to, and assist customers who have them.
In this day and age what excuse could the store have? Physical and mental health challenges are a common knowledge today, even if some business are’t very aware of their customers’ needs.