Rite Aid settles EEOC disability, retaliation charges for $250,000
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Drugstore chain Rite Aid Corp. has agreed to pay $250,000 to settle a disability and retaliation discrimination lawsuit brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
The settlement resolves a 2008 lawsuit filed against Camp Hill, Pa.-based Rite Aid for allegedly violating the Americans with Disabilities Amendments Act in U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, Northern Division, in Baltimore, the EEOC said in a statement Wednesday.
In the suit, the EEOC alleged that Christopher Fultz, a pharmacy order picker, was fired from Rite Aid’s customer service center in Perryman, Md., because of his epilepsy disability.
Mr. Fultz alleged that he was fired in retaliation because of a separate 2006 discrimination charge filed with the EEOC alleging Rite Aid denied him promotions because of his disability, the EEOC said.
Since Mr. Fultz’s initial complaint to the EEOC, he was, among other things, subjected “to isolation, embarrassment and humiliation by co-workers and supervisors. This conduct includes depriving him of job-related training and photographing Mr. Fultz while he was experiencing a seizure,” according to the lawsuit.
The EEOC also claimed that Rite Aid did not provide Mr. Fultz reasonable accommodations that could have eliminated or lessened any safety concerns related to his epilepsy, the EEOC said.
In addition to paying $250,000 to Mr. Fultz, the three-year consent decree prohibits Rite Aid from further violating the ADA and requires the company to revise its ADA policies and provide training for managers at the Perryman facility.
Rite Aid did not immediately return requests for comment.
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