North Memorial Health, a healthcare provider that operates two hospitals and 26 specialty and primary care clinics, urgent and emergency care facilities, and medical transportation services throughout the Twin Cities metropolitan area, will pay $180,000 and provide other relief to settle a disability discrimination lawsuit filed by the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the federal agency announced. According to the EEOC’s lawsuit, in July 2020, North Memorial Health failed to hire an applicant who is deaf for a greeter position because of her disability and failed to provide her a reasonable accommodation. The applicant was qualified for the position and could perform the essential functions of the job which included greeting visitors, applying COVID-19 masking standards and policies, giving directions, and keeping the area tidy and welcoming, violated the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA), as amended, which requires the accommodation of employees’ and applicants’ disabilities and prohibits firing or refusing to hire an applicant due to their disability.
In addition to the $180,000 in monetary relief, the two-year consent decree settling the suit requires North Memorial Health to revise its policies to state it will apply its disability anti-discrimination and reasonable accommodation policies to all applicants and employees hired to work at North Memorial Health, whether they are hired by North Memorial directly or through a staffing firm. The decree also requires North Memorial Health to include in all new contracts with staffing firms that provide contract or temporary workers, a provision that North Memorial Health will engage in the ADA interactive process when informed that an applicant or employee has requested an accommodation, and North Memorial will provide a reasonable accommodation unless doing so would result in an undue hardship or direct threat. North Memorial Health is also required to submit to the EEOC reports of complaints of failure to hire and failure to accommodate based on disability. North Memorial Health will also provide training to employees involved in the hiring process.
