Each month, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) files lawsuits and settles cases covering the federal laws they are responsible for enforcing. These federal laws include:
Below is a list of lawsuits and settlements by the EEOC in from November 16 to 30, 2024.
EEOC Lawsuits
Texas: Jury Awards $2.17 Million Against SkyWest Airlines for Sex Discrimination
Sex discrimination; Sexual harassment: Retaliation
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act
According to the EEOC, multiple coworkers and at least one manager made extremely crude sexual comments to Budd, including the suggestion that she should make money via prostitution. Male co-workers also made suggestions or requests that Budd perform demeaning sex acts, and made frequent jokes and remarks about rape and rape victims, including the statement that women who report rape do so for attention. The jury agreed that Budd, herself a survivor of sexual assault, experienced physical illness and intense mental anguish as a result of her work environment.
Budd reported the sexual harassment to her supervisor, who did nothing in response to her complaint. When Budd reported the sexual harassment to the employee relations department, the employee relations manager did not interview many employees identified as witnesses to and participants in the harassment or ask obvious follow-up questions. As a result, the investigation did not uncover the full extent of the harassment. Although SkyWest promised to discipline participating coworkers and provide department-wide training, the discipline was superficial and SkyWest canceled the training after Budd retired, deciding that it was no longer necessary. SkyWest conducted training three years later, and only in response to litigation, the EEOC said.
EEOC Settlements
Georgia: Sureste Property Group to Pay $75,000 in EEOC Race Discrimination Lawsuit
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act
According to the EEOC’s lawsuit, Sureste violated federal law when it fired its first and only Black project development manager because of his race. The project development manager performed well, despite being assigned more work than his white counterparts, but the company terminated him less than a year after his hire, claiming first that he was “lazy” and not a good fit for the company’s “culture.” Later, the company claimed that his role had been eliminated, but less than a month after firing him, Sureste promoted a significantly less-qualified white employee to the same position.
Georgia: Total Systems Services to Pay $65,000 in Disability Discrimination Lawsuit
Disability discrimination; Reasonable accommodation
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
The EEOC’s lawsuit charged that from May through August 2020, a customer service representative with a disability who worked in a Total Systems call center repeatedly requested remote work as a reasonable accommodation because of her high-risk status with respect to COVID-19. At the time, the employee’s call center co-workers were regularly testing positive for the virus, the EEOC said.
On the advice of her doctor, the employee requested remote work after a May 2020 workplace COVID-19 exposure. Total Systems denied the employee’s reasonable accommodation request based on criteria that applied equally to all customer service representatives seeking to work remotely instead of engaging in an individualized assessment of the employee’s disability-related needs, as required by the ADA. To avoid further exposure—and the increased risks she faced if she contracted COVID-19—the employee went on medical leave. The company again denied her request for remote work, and she was required to return to in-facility work even though many other employees in her department had transitioned to remote work. Total Systems continued to deny the employee’s reasonable accommodation request and the employee was forced to resign in August 2020 to ensure her own safety, the EEOC said.
Maryland: Verizon Maryland to Pay $115,000 in EEOC Disability Discrimination Suit
Disability discrimination; Reasonable accommodation
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
According to the EEOC’s lawsuit, a management employee who suffered from hypertension asked his manager for a change to a field position or to an alternate management position to accommodate his disability. There was an opening for a field position which the employee previously held, but Verizon did not allow him to compete for that position, telling him he would have to resign and reapply for the position in six months. The company offered no other accommodation, was not offered opportunities to compete for other vacant management positions, and the employee was forced to quit due to medical necessity, the suit said.
Texas: VibraLife of Katy to Pay $80,000 in EEOC Disability Discrimination Lawsuit
Disability discrimination; Reasonable accommodation
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
According to the lawsuit, VibraLife hired an employee with a sleep disorder for a night shift position. The job posting required the selected candidate to work 36 hours per week in three 12-hour shifts. Upon beginning her employment, the employee was notified that she would be required to work a fourth 12-hour shift every other week. The employee promptly requested an accommodation that her schedule be limited to the express terms of the job posting and offer to accommodate her disability. Shortly after receiving the employee’s request for a reasonable accommodation, the employee was demoted and then terminated.
