The federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) recently sent a strong warning to employers: You cannot just terminate employees who run out of leave without first exploring whether or not a reasonable accommodation can be provided.
The EEOC recently reached a $6.2 million class action settlement with Sears, Roebuck & Company. Sears also agreed to change its policy regarding employees who run out of workers’ compensation leave benefits.
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The settlement is the result of prolonged litigation, which began in 2004 when the EEOC filed a complaint against Sears for maintaining an inflexible policy that automatically terminated employees who ran out of workers’ compensation and other leave benefits under the Family and Medical Leave Act and the company’s leave benefits program.
The agency asserted that Sears’ automatic termination policy violated the federal Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which requires employers to engage in an interactive process to determine if disabled employees (including those with long-term workplace injuries) can be accommodated and returned to work.
Although the EEOC’s complaint was brought under federal law, California law also requires employers to attempt to accommodate employees who exhaust leave entitlements, to see if they can be put back on the job.
Similar class action complaints have been filed by the EEOC recently against other national companies, including UPS and JP Morgan Chase & Company. The UPS litigation is still pending, while the case against JP Morgan was settled for $2.2 million.