Northern Virginia Surgery Center, LLC (NVSC), which operates an outpatient surgery center, will pay $50,000 and provide programmatic relief to resolve a disability and age discrimination lawsuit filed by the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the federal agency announced. According to the lawsuit, when an older radiologic technologist requested an extension of her medical leave to recover from carpel tunnel surgery, NVSC terminated her and replaced her with two significantly younger and less-qualified co-workers. The termination and replacement occurred while the employee was still on approved medical leave, the EEOC said. Such conduct violates the Age Discrimination Employment Act (ADEA), which protects employees 40 years of age and older from discrimination on the basis of age, and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which requires employers to provide reasonable accommodations to employees with disabilities if doing so would not pose an undue hardship. The EEOC filed suit (EEOC v. Northern Virginia Surgery Center, LLC, Case No. 1:24-cv-1721) in US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia after first attempting to reach a voluntary pre-litigation settlement through its conciliation process.
