Clinic settles ADA lawsuit alleging it fired employee on her first day

All Day Medical Care Clinic, a health clinic based in Gaithersburg, Maryland, has settled allegations by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that it refused to accommodate an appointment scheduling assistant and then fired her on her first day of work, court documents show. submitted on 17 September.

Accordingly the agency's lawsuitThe scheduling assistant told the CEO on her first day of work that she was visually impaired and needed Optelec Magnification and Zoomtext software to do her job. He allegedly told her she should have disclosed her disability and need for accommodations during her interview and that “things might have turned out differently” if she had done so.

Although a social worker from the rehabilitation department reportedly called and offered to pay for the software, the CEO remained persistent in firing the new employee, the EEOC said.

In the settlement, in which All Day Medical Care Clinic admitted no liability, the health care provider agreed to pay $75,000, which represents $50,000 in lost wages and $25,000 in non-economic damages, and will also notify new employees of its accommodation policies under the Americans with Disabilities Act, designate individuals to whom such requests can be made, provide training to all staff and management on compliance with the ADA, and post an EEOC notice informing employees of the settlement and its terms.

“This measure is intended to remind employers that employees do not have to disclose their disabilities prior to employment and that they are entitled to an accommodation unless undue hardship is created,” said Rosemarie Rhodes, director of the EEOC’s Baltimore Field Office, in a Agency press release.