From the Wall Street Journal
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. will pay $250,000 and make policy changes to settle a disability discrimination lawsuit filed by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
The agency accused Wal-Mart of failing to accommodate, then firing, a long-time pharmacy technician disabled by a gunshot wound.
In a lawsuit filed in federal court in Maryland, the commission said Glenda D. Allen had worked as a Wal-Mart pharmacy technician since July 1993 and was shot during a robbery at a different employer in 1994. She suffered permanent damage to her spinal cord and other problems and had to use a cane to walk. Despite what the EEOC said was a successful job performance, Wal-Mart declared Ms. Allen incapable of performing her job with or without a reasonable accommodation, denied her a reasonable accommodation, then fired her, the EEOC said.
The company will provide Americans with Disabilities Act training to salaried supervisors and managers of its Abingdon, Md., stores and pharmacies and list all employees there who have complained of such problems.
This is the EEOC's second settlement this year with Wal-Mart about the ADA. In April, it settled a lawsuit about the company's failure to hire a person with cerebral palsy for $300,000 and agreed to make policy changes.
