FedEx required employees with disabilities to be 100% healed ...
An article from
Dive Brief
The company placed employees on leave even when they could perform essential job functions with or without a reasonable accommodation, per the suit.
Published Sept. 9, 2024
Workers unload pallets from a FedEx cargo plane at Dulles International Airport in Dulles, Va., on May 25, 2022. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed a lawsuit against the company on Sept. 6, 2024. Drew Angerer via Getty Images
This audio is auto-generated. Please let us know if you have feedback.
The commission has previously warned in guidance that employers violate the ADA when they require employees on extended leave to be 100% healed or able to work without restrictions.
Such policies are frequently the target of EEOC litigation; in 2022, Circle K agreed to pay $8 million to settle allegations by EEOC that it maintained a 100% healed policy, among other alleged violations. Similarly, a Louisiana medical center settled with EEOC after the agency alleged that the employer required employees to be “fully fit for duty” or 100% healed if they exceeded caps on fixed leave and light duty.
In its suit, EEOC claimed that FedEx placed one of the drivers in the suit on light duty after she sustained injuries that limited her ability to lift. The company then allegedly placed the employee on unpaid medical leave before firing her because she could not return to work without medical restrictions.
“100%-healed policies, like the one FedEx has, cost qualified workers their livelihood without giving them individual consideration,” Gregory Gochanour, regional attorney at EEOC, said in a press release. “Under the ADA, employers have an obligation to explore reasonable accommodations and not to screen out qualified individuals with disabilities who can do their jobs.”
EEOC’s suit comes more than four years after FedEx subsidiary FedEx Ground agreed to a $3.3 million settlement to resolve claims that it failed to accommodate workers with hearing impairments.