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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 31, 2018
EEOC FILES DISABILITY DISCRIMINATION
LAWSUIT AGAINST HERITAGE HOME GROUP
Home
Furnishings Company Denied Accommodation to and Fired Employee,
Federal
Agency Charges
CHARLOTTE,
N.C. – Heritage Home Group, LLC (Heritage Home), a North Carolina corporation
that designs, manufactures, sources and retails home furnishings, violated
federal law when it denied a reasonable accommodation to one of its employees
and then fired him, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)
charged in a lawsuit filed today.
According to the EEOC’s complaint,
Heritage Home hired Michael Woods to work as a machine operator at its Hickory
Chair Company manufacturing plant in Hickory, N.C., in October 2015. Woods, a
diabetic, developed an infection in one of his toes in March 2016. Woods
underwent an operation to have the toe amputated, and was subsequently
diagnosed with peripheral neuropathy in both feet. The EEOC said that around
April 8, 2016, Woods, who was out of work on short-term disability leave, informed
Heritage Home of his anticipated return to work the first week of June, since
he needed the additional leave to recover fully. In a letter dated April 29,
2016, Heritage Home informed Woods that it was terminating his employment
because he would not be able to return to work until then.
Such alleged conduct violates the
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which requires employers to provide
reasonable accommodations to qualified individuals with a disability unless
doing so would be an undue hardship. The EEOC filed suit in the U.S. District
Court for the Western District of North Carolina, Statesville Division (EEOC v.
Heritage Home Group, LLC, Civil Action No. 5:18-cv-00018) after first
attempting to reach a pre-litigation settlement through its conciliation
process. The EEOC seeks back pay, compensatory damages and punitive damages,
as well as injunctive relief.
“The
obligation to accommodate an employee with a disability so that he or she can
retain the job is a fundamental aspect of the ADA,” said Lynette A. Barnes,
regional attorney for the EEOC’s Charlotte District Office. “Employers must be
careful to give employees a fair chance to make a full recovery from
disability-related conditions and return to productive work when the company
can do so without undue hardship.”
The EEOC advances opportunity in
the workplace by enforcing federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination.
More information is available at www.eeoc.gov.
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updates.
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