United Airlines agreed to pay more than $1 million and implement changes to settle a federal disability lawsuit filed by the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the agency said.
The EEOC’s lawsuit, originally filed in 2009, charged that United’s competitive transfer policy violated the Americans with Disabilities Act by requiring workers with disabilities to compete for vacant positions for which they were qualified and that they needed in order to continue working. The practice prevented some employees from continuing with United, the EEOC said.
The law requires an employer to provide reasonable accommodation to an employee or job applicant with a disability, unless doing so would impose an undue hardship for the employer.
“If a disability prevents an employee from returning to work in his or her current position, an employer must consider reassignment,” said EEOC Regional Attorney William Tamayo. “Employers should take note: When all other accommodations fail, consider whether your employee can fill a vacant position for which he or she is qualified.”
The consent decree settling the suit, signed by Hon. Judge Harry Leinenweber on Thursday, requires the airline to pay $1,000,040 to a small class of former employees with disabilities and to revise its ADA reassignment policy, train employees with supervisory or human resource responsibilities accordingly, and provide reports to the EEOC on disabled employees who were denied a position as part of the ADA reassignment process.
This resolution concludes a lengthy and complicated lawsuit. United successfully moved for a change of venue to the Northern District of Illinois from California, where the EEOC had originally filed suit. Bound by an earlier precedent that held that a competitive transfer policy like United’s didn’t violate the ADA, the lower court dismissed the EEOC’s case in February 2011.
But in a decision reviewed by the full court, the Seventh Circuit agreed with the EEOC that EEOC v. Humiston Keeling “did not survive” an intervening Supreme Court decision, U.S. Airways v. Barnett. The Seventh Circuit reversed the lower court’s dismissal, and the Supreme Court refused the airline’s subsequent request for review on May 28, 2013.
