EMPLOYEE WITH PROSTHETIC LEG SETTLES CASE
A Walmart store based down in South Carolina was sued by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) after the company denied an employee, with a prosthetic leg, use of one of the store’s electric cart,
Apparently, some seven months after LQ was with the company, it switched its position about his use of the vehicle and was informed that the carts were for customers only (even though other employees were able to use them to accommodate their injuries) and was placed on “indefinite unpaid leave.”
Believing that such conduct violated the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the EEOC filed suit (EEOC v. Wal-Mart Stores East, LP, Case No. 1:22-cv-02596-JFA-TER) in U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina, Aiken Division, seeking monetary damages and injunctive relief.
In addition to paying the impacted individual some $70,000, the company reinstated LQ’s position at a South Carolina store, and agreed to modify its employment related policies and practices.
In a written statement, Nicholas Wolfmeyer, trial attorney for the EEOC, noted that “The EEOC will aggressively pursue all appropriate avenues of make-whole relief for victims of discrimination ….This often includes advocating for an employee to be reinstated, which will be done in this case.”
Did that Walmart put the cart before the horse?