City of Philadelphia Sued for Disability Discrimination

A proposed consent decree filed by the US government alleges that the city of Philadelphia discriminated against an employee with a disability when it terminated him from his position as a sanitation worker. According to the complaint, the employee suffered a heart attack and was placed under a 20-pound lifting restriction, which prevented him from continuing as a sanitation worker.

Despite the employee’s requests for reassignment and the city’s having numerous vacant positions, the city failed to consider him for reassignment to a different position for which he was qualified. Instead, the city terminated him because of his disability, in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

The proposed consent decree requires the city’s streets department to revise its policies to ensure that reassignment is considered as a reasonable accommodation for employees with disabilities. Additionally, the city will be required to train relevant employees on the ADA and report to the government on implementation of the decree.

The city will also offer to reinstate and reassign the employee to an open position for which he is qualified and will pay him a total of $90,000 for back pay, accrued interest and compensatory damages.

Firing an employee because of a disability in these circumstances constitutes discrimination and violates the ADA, said Acting Assistant Attorney General Tom Wheeler of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. We commend the city of Philadelphia for agreeing to revise its policies and offering to reinstate the former employee.

The matter was based on a referral from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s Philadelphia Area Office, which completed the initial investigation of the facts.

For more information on the Civil Rights Division, please visit www.justice.gov/crt. For more information on the Civil Rights Division’s Disability Rights Section, please call the department’s toll-free ADA Information Line at 800-514-0301 (TDD 800-514-0383) or visit www.ada.gov.

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