New England Biz Law Update
A Denver-based trucking company has agreed to pay $919,000 and modify its employment policies to resolve a disability discrimination lawsuit brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), ending a legal battle that began in 2016.
Western Distributing Transportation Corp. will divide the settlement between back pay and compensatory damages for up to 58 current and former employees who were allegedly denied reasonable accommodations or terminated following medical leave.
As part of the four-year consent decree, the company did not admit liability but agreed to implement workplace changes and submit to third-party monitoring.
The policy at issue
At the heart of the lawsuit was Western’s “full duty” policy, which required employees returning from medical leave to be completely free of restrictions.
According to the EEOC, that practice failed to consider whether employees could perform their essential job functions with accommodations, a requirement under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
In one instance highlighted in the complaint, a driver who had undergone open-heart surgery sought reassignment to a less physically demanding role. The company denied the request and discharged the employee.
The EEOC argued that this blanket policy violated the ADA, and in 2023 a federal jury agreed in part, finding that Western’s policies had a disparate impact on workers with disabilities.
However, the jury rejected two other key claims: that the company had a pattern of discriminatory practices and failed to accommodate specific individuals. The EEOC sought a retrial on those issues but ultimately reached a settlement.
Compliance commitments
As part of the settlement, Western Distributing must:
- Eliminate references to “full duty” from its policies and clarify that employees need not be “fully healed” to return to work.
- Explain that family and medical leave may be extended as a reasonable accommodation.
- Undergo annual EEO reporting and compliance assessments.
Takeaways for employers
The case underscores the legal risks of enforcing rigid return-to-work policies that don’t account for reasonable accommodations.
Employers should be cautious with any policy requiring employees to be “100% healed” or “full duty,” as such standards could be found incompatible with the ADA. Instead, businesses must engage in an interactive process to assess whether an employee can perform essential job functions with accommodations.
Employers also need to take care to align their internal policies not only with safety regulations, such as those issued by the Department of Transportation, but also with federal disability law.
