J.A. Thomas & Associates, a medical consulting business, has agreed to pay $350,000 to resolve a disability discrimination lawsuit filed by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). This is the fourth EEOC disability discrimination settlement of 2013 - this serves as evidence that the EEOC will go after employers if their policies and practices do not align with the purpose and mandates of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
As part of its complaint, the EEOC claimed that J.A. Thomas violated the ADA by failing to rehire an employee, a bilateral amputee, due to her disability. In addition to paying the $350,000, J.A. Thomas has agreed to provide ADA training to all of its employees.
While a settlement may save an employer the time, cost and public embarrassment of employment litigation, a better course of action is to have the proper employment practices and policies in place and to provide training on such policies in order to avoid claims from ever being filed.
Additional Resources
How to Prevent Disability Discrimination Claims
How to Determine if an Employee Is Disabled
How to Handle a Complaint of Disability Discrimination
How to Conduct a Training Needs Analysis
Discrimination Policy
What Supervisors Need to Know About the ADA - Supervisor Briefing
Managing an Employee With a Disability - Supervisor Briefing
Discrimination - Supervisor Briefing
Training Acknowledgement Form
