Verizon To Pay $20M To Settle Discrimination Suit
BALTIMORE (AP) -- Verizon will pay $20 million to resolve a lawsuit over its treatment of disabled employees who missed work as a result of their disability.
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced the settlement in the lawsuit filed in Maryland on Wednesday. In the lawsuit the EEOC said Verizon unlawfully denied reasonable accommodations to hundreds of employees who had to miss work because of a disability. The EEOC said the company violated the Americas With Disabilities Act by not accommodating employees who missed work because of their disability, disciplining or firing them instead.
The EEOC said in a statement that the settlement, which needs to be approved by a judge, is the single largest disability discrimination settlement in EEOC history.
Verizon will also change its absence policy.
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