The United States Justice Department Thursday announced that it reached an agreement with Lanier Technical College, a unit of the Technical College System of Georgia, to resolve a lawsuit that alleged discrimination in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
The agreement resolves the Department’s complaint that the college terminated an employee, after years of service to the college, who has Multiple Sclerosis.
The complaint alleged that after the employee took three days of sick leave one summer, the college removed her from the teaching schedule for an entire school semester, thus reducing her hours and pay to zero.
The agreement requires Lanier Technical College to revise its policies to ensure compliance with the ADA, implement new policies to ensure it does not discriminate on the basis of disability in its scheduling practices, train staff on the ADA, and file periodic reports with the Department on implementation of the agreement.
The college will pay $53,000 in back pay and compensatory damages to its former employee. The complaint was based on a referral from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s Atlanta District Office, which completed the initial investigation.
“Individuals should not face unlawful barriers to employment because they have a chronic illness or other disability,” said Assistant Attorney General Eric Dreiband.
“This agreement is another step towards eliminating discriminatory employment barriers for people with disabilities,” he said. “We applaud Lanier Technical College for committing to change its policies and practices and for compensating its former employee who was unlawfully terminated.”
“Nearly 30 years after the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, cases like this demonstrate that there is still work to be done to ensure that the hard-working people in our district do not face disability discrimination at work or otherwise,” added U.S. Attorney Byung J. “BJay” Pak for the Northern District of Georgia.
