EMPLOYEE’S ACCOMMODATION REQUEST WRONGFULLY DENIED
After an auto accident – which left her with post-concussion syndrome, upper back pain, muscle spasms and chronic lower back pain -- a longtime Sam Club’s employee requested minor work accommodations. While that request was initially granted, after a single shift, a supervisor informed the employee that she could not continue with restrictions and that she would need to take another leave of absence and return when she could fully perform her job functions.
Despite adhering to her supervisor’s request, the employee was fired, with the store manager claiming that an accommodation was not possible because the injuries occurred outside of work.
Finding such conduct violative of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the EEOC filed suit (EEOC v. Sam’s East, Inc. and Walmart Inc., Case No. 1:25-CV-0222) in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia seeking monetary damages and injunctive relief.
In a written statement, Marcus G. Keegan, regional attorney for the EEOC’s Atlanta District Office, noted that “The ADA mandates the reasonable accommodation of disabilities, regardless of their cause …. Sam’s Club had a duty to attempt to accommodate the employee’s disabilities when she sought to return to work with minimal restrictions, but it violated its duty when it declined to do so because of the source of her underlying injuries.”
Look who's getting clubbed there …
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EEOC PRES RELEASE ~ 01-17-25
https://www.eeoc.gov/newsroom/eeoc-sues-sams-club-disability-discrimination