SAFEWAY TO PAY $75,000 TO SETTLE EEOC DISABILITY DISCRIMINATION LAWSUIT
Seattle Store Refused to Hire Deaf Applicant, Federal Agency Charged
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 19, 2019
CONTACT: Nancy Sienko, Seattle Field Director (206) 220-6878
Roberta Steele, Regional Attorney (415) 522-3011
John Stanley, Supervisory Trial Attorney (206) 220-6896
Teri Healy, Senior Trial Attorney (206) 220-6916
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SEATTLE — National grocery store chain Safeway, Inc. will pay $75,000 and make significant changes to its policies and hiring practices to resolve a disability discrimination lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the federal agency announced today.
According to the EEOC’s lawsuit, Joel Sibert applied online in July 2017 for several jobs at Safeway Store #1551 in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood and was selected for an interview based on his qualifications and experience working similar jobs. However, once Sibert explained that he is deaf and would need an interpreter for the interview, the in-store hiring recruiter told him she did not know anything about providing an interpreter and then never got back to him about the interview. Instead, Safeway hired several hearing individuals to fill the vacant positions, the EEOC said.
Rejecting a qualified applicant because of disability violates the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The EEOC filed suit in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington (EEOC v. Safeway, Inc., Case No. 2:18-cv-01352-RSL) after an investigation by EEOC Investigator Isabel Jeremiah and after first attempting to reach a pre-litigation settlement through its conciliation process.
The three-year consent decree settling the lawsuit provides Sibert with $75,000 in damages for emotional distress and back pay, and calls for important changes to Safeway’s hiring policies and practices. Safeway has agreed to revise its career website and application to make it easier for applicants to request accommodations; include contact information in its ADA policy; conduct ADA and accommodation training; distribute its modified ADA/accommodation policy to all employees annually; and ensure that recruiters understand Safeway’s obligations under the ADA.
“I was excited when I was selected for an interview at Safeway,” said Silbert. “But when I requested an interpreter during my interview and placed multiple calls to the store over the following week, I was placed on hold or told no one was available. I felt so disregarded. I’m glad Safeway is taking steps to make their workplace more inclusive. This will make a difference for so many deaf applicants.”
EEOC Seattle Field Director Nancy Sienko said, “Discrimination against individuals with disabilities continues to be a serious and pervasive problem. Safeway’s agreement to changes in policies and training as well as other proactive steps shows its commitment to making the workplace accessible to all.”
Sienko noted that eliminating barriers in hiring, especially hiring practices that discriminate against people with disabilities, is one of six national priorities identified by the Commission's 2017-21 Strategic Enforcement Plan (SEP), and added, “This is our district’s second settlement resolving recent lawsuits on behalf of qualified applicants who were not given a chance to interview as soon as it became apparent that they were deaf. These are candidates with valuable skills and experience, and the EEOC will champion their right to be considered on the basis of their merits instead of stereotypes about their disabilities.”
EEOC Senior Trial Attorney Teri Healy added, “Too often we see people with disabilities who are excluded from job opportunities. The ADA is designed to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to compete on an equal basis. The outcome here shows the importance of the EEOC’s mission to enforce the ADA.”
According to its website, http://www.safeway.com, Safeway became a subsidiary of Albertsons, Inc. in 2015. Prior to the merger with Albertsons, Safeway operated 1,335 stores in the United States and employed 138,000 individuals.
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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The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has released detailed breakdowns for the 76,418 charges of workplace discrimination the agency received in fiscal year 2018. The comprehensive enforcement and litigation statistics for FY 2018, which ended Sept. 30, 2018, are posted on the agency’s website, which also includes detailed breakdown of charges by state.
The EEOC resolved 90,558 charges of discrimination. Overall, the EEOC secured $505 million for victims in private sector, state and local government, and federal workplaces. The agency reduced the charge workload by 19.5 percent to 49,607. It achieved this through deploying new strategies to more efficiently prioritize charges with merit, more quickly resolve investigations, and improve the agency’s digital systems. The agency handled over 519,000 calls to its toll-free number, 34,600 emails and more than 200,000 inquiries in field offices, reflecting the significant public demand for the EEOC’s services.
“The EEOC had a remarkable year working on behalf of those who came to the agency having experienced discrimination in their workplaces,” said EEOC Acting Chair Victoria A. Lipnic. “Our fiscal year 2018 final statistics reflect significant recoveries for individuals through our administrative enforcement and our litigation program. The statistics also indicate the EEOC has been handling its workload in a more efficient manner, expanding tools to provide better timelier service to the public while sharpening our focus on meritorious charges and those that advance the public interest. The statistics reflect the agency’s successes in taking advantage of new strategies to bring about the lowest inventory of private sector charges in a dozen years. Further, we cannot look back on last year without noting the significant impact of the #MeToo movement in the number of sexual harassment and retaliation charges filed with the agency. Last year was an incredibly important and productive year for the agency and my thanks go out to all of the staff who rose to the occasion,” added Lipnic.
The FY 2018 data show that retaliation continued to be the most frequently filed charge filed with the agency, followed by sex, disability and race. The agency also received 7,609 sexual harassment charges – a 13.6 percent increase from FY 2017 – and obtained $56.6 million in monetary benefits for victims of sexual harassment. Specifically, the charge numbers show the following breakdowns by bases alleged, in descending order:
- Retaliation: 39,469 (51.6 percent of all charges filed)
- Sex: 24,655 (32.3 percent)
- Disability: 24,605 (32.2 percent)
- Race: 24,600 (32.2 percent)
- Age: 16,911 (22.1 percent)
- National Origin: 7,106 (9.3 percent)
- Color: 3,166 (4.1 percent)
- Religion: 2,859 (3.7 percent)
- Equal Pay Act: 1,066 (1.4 percent)
- Genetic Information: 220 (.3 percent)
These percentages add up to more than 100 because some charges allege multiple bases.
EEOC legal staff filed 199 merits lawsuits alleging discrimination in fiscal year 2018. The lawsuits filed by the EEOC included 117 individual suits and 45 suits involving multiple victims or discriminatory policies and 37 systemic discrimination cases. At the end of the fiscal year, the EEOC had 302 cases on its active docket. The EEOC achieved a successful outcome in 95.7 percent of all district court resolutions.
https://twitter.com/eeoc_sf/status/1117223112339144704
Supervisory Trial Attorney Marcia Mitchell and Enforcement Supervisor Eric Darius staff the EEOC Booth at DeafNation Expo- Pleasanton, CA. They shared recent EEOC cases on behalf of deaf workers, including Joel Sibert's (see above) and the following:
https://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/newsroom/release/9-7-18a.cfm
https://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/newsroom/release/9-12-18a.cfm
https://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/newsroom/release/11-1-18a.cfm
https://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/newsroom/release/2-1-18b.cfm
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