You don’t see that many cases of disability-based harassment, but like other types of ADA violations, this one is also on the EEOC’s radar screen.
The EEOC announced recently it defeated a motion to dismiss an ADA lawsuit it brought against a cleaning company in Plainfield, Illinois, that it alleged had harassed an employee because of his disability.
The EEOC has sued Mont Brook Inc., doing business as the Cleaning Authority of Plainfield, alleging that company’s president referred to an employee who walks with an abnormal gait as a result of a stroke as “a cripple,” mockingly imitated the way she walks, and told her that she was being a “hysterical basket case” when she objected to that treatment.
The company moved to dismiss on the grounds that the alleged harassment wasn’t severe and pervasive enough to alter the alleged victim’s working conditions. However, the court rejected that argument and let the case proceed.
Here’s the EEOC’s announcement.
And check out attorney Jon Hyman’s blog post today on a string of recent successful settlements by the EEOC in ADA lawsuits.
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