Wal-Mart Stores Inc. will pay $250,000 and make policy changes to settle a disability discrimination lawsuit filed by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), The Wall Street Journal reported June 9.
The EEOC said Wal-Mart of failed to accommodate, then fired, a long-time pharmacy technician who is disabled.
The lawsuit filed in federal court in Maryland concerned the firing of Glenda D. Allen, who worked as a Wal-Mart pharmacy technician since July 1993 and became disabled after she was shot during a robbery at a different employer in 1994. The gunshot wound left her with a spinal cord injury so she needed a cane to walk.
The EEOC reported that Allen had successful job performance, but that Wal-Mart declared Ms. Allen incapable of performing her job with or without a reasonable accommodation. The EEOC said that Wal-Mart denied her a reasonable accommodation and then fired her.
As part of the settlement, Wal-Mart will provide Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) training to the salaried supervisors and managers of its Abingdon, Md., stores and pharmacies and list all employees there who have complained of such problems.
The WSJ reports that this is the EEOC's second settlement in 2008 with Wal-Mart about the ADA. In April, it settled a lawsuit about Wal-Mart's refusing to employ a person with cerebral palsy for $300,000 and agreed to make policy changes.
