Jury awards $1.675M to hearing-impaired applicant in EEOC lawsuit

I like to tell you about areas of deep interest to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), regardless of where the case pops up. Here’s an update from New York that still has much to teach Texas employers.

EEOC does end zone victory dance!

When the EEOC wins a case, it celebrates with a press release as a way to, well, boost morale but also—and more importantly—as a warning to other employers: Do not do what this employer did. So let’s start with an EEOC press release for a recent win. Then, we’ll get into the details of the case. Here’s the start of the press release from February 8, 2024:

After a 3 ½ day trial, the jury found, following two hours of deliberation, that McLane Northeast, a distribution company with a large [warehouse] facility, . . . violated the [Americans with Disabilities Act] ADA. . . . The jury awarded the deaf applicant $25,000 in back pay, $150,000 in emotional damages, and $1.5 million in punitive damages.

That will get any employer’s attention. One of the winning EEOC lawyers said, “The law requires an even playing field to ensure that applicants with disabilities have the same job opportunities as all other candidates for open positions; but, as the jury found, that plainly did not happen here.”

What happened?