Dive Brief:
- Walmart will pay $230,000 to settle a U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission lawsuit that claimed it violated the Americans with Disabilities Act. The employer allegedly refused to accommodate a deaf applicant and failed to hire him because of his disability, according to a May 11 consent decree in EEOC v. Walmart.
- The applicant applied online for a stocking job at a Walmart store in Decatur, Illinois, EEOC alleged in a 2021 lawsuit. When a screener contacted him for an interview, he allegedly requested an American Sign Language interpreter. The screener said she would follow up but never did, even after he called back to check on his interview status, the EEOC alleged.
- Walmart allegedly never contacted him again and hired three hearing applicants for stocking positions around the same time, EEOC said. Under the two-year decree, in addition to the monetary payment, Walmart must post a list of ASL interpreters with their contact numbers to be used during the hiring process at the Decatur store for qualified applicants who are deaf or have a hearing disability and request the accommodation.
Dive Insight:
A Walmart spokesperson stated in an email to HR Dive that, “We don’t tolerate discrimination of any kind and provide reasonable accommodations to thousands of associates. We are glad to have this matter resolved.”
Protecting the right to reasonable accommodation for job applicants with a disability “is particularly important because it is how we keep the workforce accessible to persons with disabilities, who can be valuable and productive employees when the door is open to them,” Acting EEOC General Counsel Catherine Eschbach stated in a media release.
People with a variety of hearing conditions, including deafness, being hard of hearing, experiencing ringing in the ears, or having sensitivity to noise, may have a disability protected by the ADA, an EEOC guidance notes.
If so, they are entitled to reasonable accommodation, unless providing the accommodation would create an undue hardship. Not every individual with a hearing disability requires accommodation, and the appropriate accommodation will depend on the individual’s needs, the guidance adds.
The provision of an ASL interpreter can be one such accommodation, the guidance points out. Assistive technology is another example, and may include video relay or remote interpreting services, voice recognition or automated captioning software, or equipment that can block noise or be used with a hearing aid, according to the guidance.
The list of ASL interpreters in the Walmart consent decree must also contain the phone number for Walmart’s Accommodation Resource Center and be visibly posted in offices used in the hiring process, the court document said.
Additionally, during each year of the two-year decree, Walmart must provide employees and managers involved in hiring at the Decatur store with training on the ADA’s nondiscrimination requirements and on Walmart’s policies and procedures related to the ADA, including its duty to provide reasonable accommodation and the types of accommodations that may be available.
Neither party admitted the claims or defenses of the other party, the consent decree said.