COMPANY PAYS $145,000 TO SETTLE DISABILITY DISCRIMINATION CASE
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) recently announced that Pete’s Car Smart – an Amarillo-based car dealership – settled a disability discrimination lawsuit for $145,000.
The company is alleged to have compelled an employee to retire, after she underwent heart surgery, because the owner didn’t believe she could perform her assigned tasks. (He also allegedly made comments about her “grey hair,” said that she suffered from “old-timers disease,” and that she was “old enough to be his mother.”
Because it believed such conduct violated the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA), the EEOC filed suit, Civil Action No. 2:23-cv-00092-Z-BR, in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, Amarillo Division, seeking monetary damages and injunctive relief.
In addition to the payment to the impacted individual, the company has agreed to modify it’s employing and training related practices so that all employees understand the laws which govern the workplace.
In a written statement, EEOC Trial Attorney Brooke López noted that “We are hopeful the resolution of this case will create ripples of positive change about which other employers in Amarillo will take note, and that the effects will be felt beyond the term of this consent decree.”
That had to smart ….
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