The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed a lawsuit accusing Atlanta-based Grady Memorial Hospital of failing to accommodate the disability of an employee and then firing her because of her disability.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, Atlanta Division, alleges the employee attempted to return to work from an approximately five-week medical leave as scheduled, and that the hospital refused to accept her physician's release, according to a May 24 news release. The EEOC contends Grady Memorial instead discriminated against the employee's disability when it required her to obtain another physician's release, then fired her — allegedly for violating a work rule — before she could come back from leave.
"Grady claims to have strictly applied a work rule instead of processing its employee's request for leave as an accommodation under the [Americans with Disabilities Act]," Marcus Keegan, regional attorney for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's Atlanta District Office, said in the release. "Had Grady simply accommodated its employee as the law requires, she would not have been fired and this situation would not have arisen."
In a statement shared with Becker's on May 25, Grady Health System said it had just learned of this lawsuit and was reviewing the allegations.
"Grady complies with all federal and state discrimination laws and does not discriminate against employees based on any protected class status," the statement said. "Grady denies the allegations and will file its defenses at the appropriate time."
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's lawsuit seeks injunctive relief as well as back pay, compensatory and punitive damages.