BALTIMORE (Legal Newsline) - The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has announced a lawsuit against Manufacturers and Traders Trust Company, doing business as M&T Bank, for allegations of disability discrimination.
The EEOC charges that Candace McCollin worked as a branch manager for M&T Bank over many years. McCollin became pregnant, the lawsuit states, and notified the bank’s administrative vice president that she suffered from a medical condition that had caused prior miscarriages. Because she needed surgery to avoid another one, the vice president allegedly told her to go on leave under the Family Medical Leave Act. When she did so, however, the company purportedly told her that it would fill her position unless she was cleared to return to work within 10 days.
Months later, after giving birth, McCollin tried to return to work but M&T failed to reassign her.
"Our investigation showed that there were two dozen vacant positions for which McCollin was qualified in the weeks before and after her termination,” EEOC Philadelphia District director Spencer H. Lewis Jr. said. “M&T could easily have transferred her as a reasonable accommodation instead of firing her because of her disability.”