COMPANY SOUGHT TO AVOID INCURRING MEDICAL COSTS
After a senior sales executive informed his employer -- Gregg Orr Auto -- that he was suffering from cancer, the company purportedly fired the 65-year-old because it wished to avoid having those costs incurred by its self-insured medical plan.
Believing that such conduct violated the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA), the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) filed suit (EEOC v. Gregg Orr Auto Collection, Inc., Case No. 5:23-cv-00097) in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, seeking monetary damages and injunctive relief.
As part of a recently announced settlement of the litigation, the car dealership agreed to pay $325,000 and to “update” its policies and practices.
In a written statement, Marsha Rucker, regional attorney for the EEOC’s Birmingham District, noted that, “This resolution underscores the EEOC’s commitment to eliminating age and disability discrimination.”
Now how cancerous was that?
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