What can HR learn from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s legal moves on COVID-19?
Plenty, according to Joseph Lynett and Sheri Giger, principals of Jackson Lewis P.C. The EEOC “rarely files lawsuits, because of its own administrative budgets,” Lynett noted during a session the two participated in Aug. 31 for the Disability Management Employer Coalition’s annual conference. Therefore, watching the cases the agency did choose to take up over the past year can give employers a sense for how the virus is changing the legal landscape.
Below are three suits the EEOC filed in September 2021 — and the takeaways for employers.
On Sept. 24, 2021, the EEOC filed suit against U.S. Drug Mart, a Texas-based pharmacy (EEOC v. U.S. Drug Mart Inc., No. 3:21-cv-00232 (Sept. 24, 2021)). According to EEOC’s complaint, the pharmacy violated the Americans with Disabilities Act by subjecting an employee with asthma to a hostile work environment by harassing him and refusing his accommodation request to wear a face mask at work.
According to the EEOC’s complaint, management informed the employee that it “was not allowing any employee to wear a facemask since it might give the appearance to customers that the employee was sick.” (The events occurred in March 2020, prior to the CDC’s recommendation that all people wear masks in public.)
EEOC has noted that an employer can turn down a request for...
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