Dive Brief:
- A Texas Kroger store discriminated against an employee with neuropathy when a manager rescinded an accommodation that had been granted to the employee by a previous manager, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission alleged in a March 26 lawsuit.
- The employee in EEOC v. Kroger Texas L.P.-Houston Division began experiencing an impairment in 2020 that limited her ability to stand and walk. She requested a walker as an accommodation as well as permission to have frequent chances to sit. The store’s general manager granted the accommodation, which was continued through July 2023, when a new manager allegedly revoked it.
- EEOC claimed the new manager refused to acknowledge the employee’s medical documentation or engage in an interactive process. It further claimed the manager instructed the employee to request leave until she could work without an accommodation. EEOC alleged violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Civil Rights Act of 1991. Kroger did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Dive Insight:
The facts as outlined by EEOC show how managerial changes can give rise to ADA claims when policies are inconsistently applied. In this case, EEOC claimed that two successive managers had recognized the employee’s accommodation and allowed it to continue, before the last manager — allegedly in consultation with HR staff — brought it to an end.
According to the commission, the leader told the employee that Kroger did not permit employees to sit and refused to speak with her about whether her past accommodation or an alternative would allow her to perform essential job functions.
Though the manager allegedly instructed the employee to request leave until she could return without an accommodation, EEOC claimed that Kroger denied the employee’s subsequent leave requests and informed her that she was on an “unapproved leave of absence” before terminating her.
“An employer, in consultation with an employee facing a disability, must consider whether an accommodation is reasonable,” Claudia Molina, senior trial attorney for EEOC, said in an agency press release. “Revoking a previously granted reasonable accommodation can violate the ADA.”
Resistance to accommodation requests on the part of supervisors is a common ADA pitfall for employers, attorneys previously told HR Dive, and managers who lack inadequate training on ADA compliance may fail to recognize when an accommodation is needed in the first place.
Managerial changes can complicate matters further, and EEOC has pursued ADA lawsuits where such changes are alleged to have resulted in noncompliance. In January, the agency settled a lawsuit with Walmart in which it alleged that a worker who previously received accommodations for a cognitive disability saw them revoked by new leadership.
Company policies that prohibit sitting or similar activities also may not override the ADA’s requirements, as EEOC noted in a 2024 settlement with a New York City hotel. There, the commission alleged that the employer denied a front desk employee’s request for a stool or chair because of a policy prohibiting such workers from sitting. But policy modifications can be reasonable accommodations under the ADA, EEOC has said.
