UPS TO PAY $2 MILLION TO RESOLVE NATIONWIDE EEOC DISABILITY DISCRIMINATION CLAIMS
Shipping Giant’s Rigid Leave
Policies Forced Out Employees Who Needed Accommodations, Federal
Agency Charged
CHICAGO – International shipping
giant United Parcel Service, Inc. (UPS) has agreed to pay $2 million to nearly
90 current and former UPS employees to resolve a nationwide disability
discrimination lawsuit filed in 2009 by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission (EEOC) as well as to conciliate related administrative charges, the
agency announced today.
The EEOC charged that UPS violated
federal law failing to provide UPS employees with disabilities reasonable
accommodations that would enable them to perform their job duties. The EEOC
further alleged that UPS maintained an inflexible leave policy, whereby the
company fired disabled employees automatically when they reached 12 months of
leave, without engaging in the interactive process required by law.
Such alleged conduct violates
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
The EEOC filed suit in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois
(Case No. 09-cv-5291) after first attempting to reach a pre-litigation
settlement through its conciliation process.
In addition to providing $2 million
in monetary relief, UPS has also agreed to update its policies on reasonable
accommodation, improve its implementation of those policies, and conduct
training for those who administer the company’s disability accommodation
processes. Furthermore, the company has agreed to provide the EEOC periodic
reports on the status of every accommodation request for the next three years
to ensure the efficacy of its procedures.
“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.”
Julianne Bowman, the EEOC’s Chicago
District director, added, “Having a multiple-month leave policy alone does not
guarantee compliance with the ADA. 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.”
According to company information, Atlanta-based
UPS has over 434,000 employees and had revenues of $61 billion in 2016.
The EEOC's Chicago District Office is
responsible for processing charges of employment discrimination,
administrative enforcement, and the conduct of agency litigation in Illinois,
Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa and North and South Dakota, with Area Offices in
Milwaukee and Minneapolis.
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.
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