ROCKFORD, Ill. (Legal Newsline) — The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has announced Wal-Mart Stores Inc. will pay a former, long-term employee $90,000 to settle allegations of disability discrimination.
According to EEOC, Wal-Mart fired an intellectually disabled employee named William Clark after he worked for the company since 1994. To reasonably accommodate his disabilities, Clark needed a written list of daily tasks.
EEOC says Wal-Mart provided this list for a period of time but eventually stopped. Wal-Mart allegedly fired Clark because he was not performing his job duties, but EEOC stated that he could not do so because Wal-Mart failed to provide the accommodation. Wal-Mart’s alleged conduct violates the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
"The ADA provides the same standard of protection to employees with intellectual disabilities and to workers with physical disabilities," said Julianne Bowman, EEOC's district director in Chicago. "Employers must provide disabled employees with reasonable accommodations if they are necessary to enable the employee to perform his or her essential job duties. Here a simple written list would have provided Mr. Clark with the accommodation he needed, and he wouldn't have been terminated."