Workplace Safety, Disabled Employees, and the ADA

When the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. offered Alisha Adams a job at its Fayetteville, N.C., plant, no one at the company asked inappropriate questions that would violate the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Once she received her conditional offer of employment, Adams revealed that she suffered from menorrhagia, a bleeding disorder. She began working after being cleared by two separate doctors. However, when she told her supervisor about her condition, she was fired, allegedly because of concerns that her medical condition would render her unconscious while at work.
That’s when the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) got involved. After a settlement agreement in July 2012, Goodyear agreed to pay $20,000, re-hire Adams, and enter into a two-year consent decree that included providing anti-discrimination training to managers, human resources department, and supervisors at the Fayetteville plant, posting information at the site about employees’ rights under federal anti-discrimination laws, and providing periodic reports to the EEOC on its hiring practices.

“The EEOC is committed to fighting discrimination in the workplace,” said Lynette A. Barnes, regional attorney for the EEOC’s Charlotte District Office. “Employers must be careful not to make assumptions about an individual based on his or her disability.”

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