Employers Required to Provide Reasonable Accommodations for Disabled Employees

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission recently settled a lawsuit alleging that a chain of convenience stores had discriminated against nine disabled employees.  The EEOC’s lawsuit claimed that the company fired a warehouse worker as well as eight other disabled employees who required reasonable accommodations from the company.  The accommodations requested by the impacted individuals included modified work duties or an exception to the company’s rule of terminating employees who missed more than three days of work if they didn’t qualify for other leave.  This alleged conduct is a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act.  Companies may not terminate their employees because they suffer from disabilities or request accommodations due to their disabilities.  See EEOC v. Brown-Thompson General Partnership, No. 5:16-cv-1142 (W.D. Okla.).