US government sues United Airlines for discriminating against the disabled

The government of the United States has sued United Airlines alleging that the airline failed to place workers, who became disabled, into other jobs they still could do.

The office of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) in San Francisco named five plaintiffs for the class-action lawsuit. Five others appeared to be victims, too, media reports quoted William Tamayo, attorney for the EEOC, as saying.

“We expect,” Tamayo remarked, “that other people will come out of the woodwork as the case gets more publicity.”

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, he added, had held settlement talks with United Airlines before filing the lawsuit, but in vain.

The lawsuit seeks financial compensation for the workers as well as a court order requiring United Airlines to change is policies.

The EEOC’s lawsuit accuses United Airlines, a subsidiary of UAL Corporation and headquartered in Chicago, the United States, of “malicious and reckless conduct” and seeks “lost wages and punitive damages for victims and an order that United Airlines stop discriminating against disabled workers.”

In a statement, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission cited one example of “malicious and reckless conduct” by United Airlines: A former mechanic named Joel Boswell had worked for United Airlines in San Francisco for over 10 years before he was diagnosed with a brain tumor. After getting medical treatment, he could no longer work as a mechanic. The airline, which refused to hire him for other jobs for which he was qualified, said that Boswell went on extended, involuntary leave until he retired in 2008.

William Tamayo, attorney for the EEOC, told reporters that United Airlines “should not have to be competing with everybody else” and that “if they can do these jobs, they should try to work out an accommodation” with the disabled worker.

United Airlines responded to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s move saying, in a press release, that “the EEOC is seemingly asking us, and other companies, to disregard the right of individuals who may be fundamentally more qualified for a position, and favour candidates who are less qualified for specific roles.”

The airline stressed that it believed in “picking the most qualified candidate to fill an open position” in compliance with the Americans With Disabilities Act.

The Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) requires employers to provide “reasonable accommodations for employees with disabilities.” Under the law, “reasonable accommodations’ specifically include reassignment to a vacant post. 

The EEOC took the stand that, instead of providing such an accommodation to Joel Boswell, United Airlines “violated the Americans With Disabilities Act by rejecting him for all the positions he had applied for, even though he was qualified for those jobs.”