EEOC settles Failure to Acommodate Suit against Verizon

 

Verizon Maryland to Pay $115,000 in EEOC Disability Discrimination Suit

Settles Federal Suit Alleging Telecom Giant Refused Accommodation to Manager With Hypertension

BALTIMORE – Verizon Maryland, LLC, will pay $115,000 and furnish significant remedial relief to settle a federal disability discrimination lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the agency announced today.

According to the EEOC’s lawsuit, a management employee who suffered from hypertension asked his manager for a change to a field position or to an alternate management position to accommodate his disability. There was an opening for a field position which the employee previously held, but Verizon did not allow him to compete for that position, telling him he would have to resign and reapply for the position in six months. The company offered no other accommodation, was not offered opportunities to compete for other vacant management positions, and the employee was forced to quit due to medical necessity, the suit said.

Such alleged conduct violated the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which prohibits discrimination based on disability. The EEOC filed suit in U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, Greenbelt Division, Case No. 23cv-02428-MJM, after first attempting to reach a pre-litigation settlement through its conciliation process.

In addition to the $115,000 in monetary relief to the former manager, the 30-month consent decree resolving the suit prevents the company from offering resignation and reapplication as an accommodation under the ADA. Further, the company must provide training on the ADA, including a specific statement that resignation and reapplication is not a reasonable accommodation. The company will also report to the EEOC on how it handles any future disability discrimination complaints.

“The concept of reasonable accommodation is to keep the employee working,” said EEOC Baltimore Field Office Director Rosemarie Rhodes. “Verizon simply did the opposite.”

EEOC Regional Attorney Debra M. Lawrence added, “This consent decree should send a clear message that inviting an employee to resign and then reapply for work six months later can never be a reasonable accommodation.”

The EEOC’s Baltimore Field Office is one of four offices in the EEOC Philadelphia District Office, which has jurisdiction over Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, West Virginia and parts of New Jersey and Ohio. Attorneys in the EEOC Philadelphia District Office also prosecute discrimination cases in Washington, D.C. and parts of Virginia.

For more information on disability discrimination, please visit https://www.eeoc.gov/disability-discrimination

The EEOC advances opportunity in the workplace by enforcing federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination. More information is available at www.eeoc.gov. Stay connected with the latest EEOC news by subscribing to our email updates.