EEOC Sues Wal-Mart for Disability Discrimination
Retailer Rescinded Accommodation, Then Fired Intellectually Disabled Employee, Federal Agency Charges ROCKFORD, Ill. - The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) filed a lawsuit Walmart against Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., alleging that the giant retailer fired an intellectually disabled employee at a Rockford Walmart store after it rescinded his workplace accommodation. "What our investigation indicated," said John Rowe, the EEOC district director in Chicago, who managed the federal agency's pre-suit administrative investigation, "is that Wal-Mart rescinded a long-standing practice of giving written job assignments to the employee, William Clark. That accommodation had been the key to permitting Clark to successfully perform his job during an 18 year career at Wal-Mart and to his meeting the company's performance expectations. We determined that shortly after rescinding the accommodation, Wal-Mart began disciplining Mr. Clark for sup