TRENTON, NJ (Legal Newsline) — New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal and the Division on Civil Rights announced April 24 that Trane U.S. Inc. will pay $45,000 to a former employee after settling allegations it discriminated against an asthmatic worker.
According to Grewal’s office, an assembler was hired to work at Trane’s manufacturing plant at Trenton. The action says at the time of the hire, the company knew of the assembler’s asthma and need for an inhaler. Yet four months into the assembler’s tenure, Trane allegedly fired him after he became short of breath, slowed his work pace, and indicated that he needed an inhaler he had left at home.
“We are committed to protecting workers with a disability, be it physical or mental,” Grewal said in a statement. “This is an important settlement, not only because it provides justice for the individual victim but because it requires this employer to revise its policies, train its managers on what unlawful discrimination is and how to avoid it and implement new measures to ensure fair treatment for its employees.”
Handling the case for New Jersey were deputy attorney general Beverley Lapsley plus division investigators Kimberly Arroyo and Elise Olgin.