Kmart To Pay $102K For Refusing To Hire Dialysis Patient Who Couldn’t Give Urine Sample

Kmart must pay $102,000 to settle a disability discrimination lawsuit filed by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) on behalf of a Maryland man who says the company reneged on a job offer when he couldn’t provide a urine sample for a drug test because of his kidney disease and dialysis.

The National Law Review reports that the retailer agreed to settle EEOC charges that it violated the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

The Americans with Disabilities Act prohibits employers from refusing to hire individuals because of their disability and requires employers to provide reasonable accommodations during the application and hiring process.

According to the EEOC lawsuit, which was filed last year, when a Kmart store in Maryland offered the man a job, he told the hiring manager that he could not provide a urine sample for the company’s mandatory pre-employment drug screening due to his kidney disease and dialysis.

However, the man says he offered to provide a reasonable accommodation such as a blood test or hair test in place of the urine sample.

The EEOC says that Kmart refused to provide an alternative test and subsequently denied the man employment.

“There was a readily available alternative to the urinalysis test in this situation,” Spencer Lewis Jr., EEOC Philadelphia District Director, says in a statement. “This case demonstrates that the consequences of failing to comply with the ADA can be far more expensive than the actual cost of providing a reasonable accommodation.”

In addition to paying $102,048 to the man, Kmart revise its drug testing policy and forms to specify the availability of reasonable accommodation for applicants or employees in the company’s drug testing process.

Additionally, Kmart must provide all store managers, store assistant managers and human resources leads with training on the equal employment opportunity laws enforced by the EEOC, and on Kmart’s ADA policy and the provision of reasonable accommodation, including as it relates to the company’s drug testing processes.

Kmart Will Pay $102,048 to Settle EEOC Disability Discrimination Lawsuit [The National Law Review]

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