Settlements Recover $232K for Alleged Disability and Pay Discrimination, Retaliation
March 25, 2021
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has recently settled lawsuits against employers in Colorado and Mississippi alleging disability and pay discrimination, and retaliation, recovering $232,000 in monetary relief for aggrieved workers.
Refused to hire applicant who is deaf.Carefree/Scott Fetzer Company, dba Carefree of Colorado, has agreed to pay$100,000 and furnish other relief to settle allegations that the RV awning manufacturer owned by Berkshire Hathaway, Inc., violated the ADA by refusing to hire an applicant at its Broomfield, Colorado, facility as an assembler or packer because she is deaf. Carefree also allegedly retaliated against the applicant by refusing to consider her because she and a job placement advocate acting on her behalf complained about discrimination and the need for disability accommodation.
Fired, retaliated against worker with sickle cell disease.Valley Tool, Inc., will pay $32,500 to resolve a claim that it violated the ADA when a sorter with sickle cell disease requested that the company allow her to take leave on the occasional days her blood disorder made her too ill to work, and in response removed her from the work schedule, placed her on involuntary leave, and then fired her because of her disability and in retaliation for her complaint about her supervisor’s disability-related comments. The precision machine shop facility located in Water Valley, Mississippi, also allegedly failed to maintain medical records separate from employee personnel files. In a separate retaliation lawsuit filed at about the same time as this one and in the same court that settled late last year, Valley Tool agreed to provide retaliation training to its supervisors and managers, and medical records training to all its management officials and HR personnel.
Women managers paid less than male counterparts.First Metropolitan Financial Services, Inc., has agreed to pay $100,000 to resolve allegations that the operator of a consumer loan and finance company in various towns across north Mississippi and in Bolivar and Memphis, Tennessee, violated the Equal Pay Act and Title VII when it paid the female branch managers lower salaries than male branch managers, despite the male and female branch managers performing substantially similar tasks and responsibilities under similar circumstances.
