A leading communications company violated the Americans With Disabilities Act by failing to reasonably accommodate an employee who suffered from diabetes, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission charged in an ADA lawsuit filed on Sept. 24.
The lawsuit charges that Windstream Communications, a FORTUNE 500 and S&P 500 company, headquartered in Little Rock, Arkansas, denied the employee’s request for a transfer to another shift when she experienced “extreme blood sugar level fluctuations due to interruptions in her sleep patterns” from working the night shift.
“Companies must not force an employee to choose between her health and her job,” said Katharine W. Kores, district director of EEOC’s Memphis District Office, which has jurisdiction over Arkansas, Tennessee, and portions of Mississippi. “They must engage in an interactive process to determine if they can accommodate the employee and must do so absent an undue hardship.”
Here’s the EEOC’s announcement of the lawsuit.
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