CHICAGO (Legal Newsline) — The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced Aug. 8 that United Parcel Service (UPS) will pay $2 million to roughly 90 current and former employees after allegations of nationwide disability discrimination.
"The ADA requires companies to make a real effort to work individually with their employees with disabilities to provide them with the necessary and reasonable accommodations that will allow them to do their jobs," said Greg Gochanour, regional attorney of the EEOC's Chicago District Office. "As a result of this lawsuit, UPS now has practices in place to better ensure that this happens."
According to the EEOC, UPS failed to provide employees with disabilities the proper reasonable accommodations that would enable them to perform job duties. Additionally, the company purportedly maintained an inflexible leave policy. Under this policy, UPS would automatically fire disabled employees who had reached 12 months of leave.
"Having a multiple-month leave policy alone does not guarantee compliance with the ADA,” said Julianne Bowman, the EEOC's Chicago District director. “Such a policy must also include the flexibility to work with employees with disabilities who may simply require a reasonable accommodation to return to work. UPS has now made changes which will allow more people to keep their jobs."