According to the EEOC's lawsuit, Christopher Vely, a sales representative with unilateral conductive hearing loss, repeatedly asked the companies' management to provide the reasonable accommodation of permitting him to telecommute or to work in a quiet area because his disability impaired his ability to make sales calls from his cubicle in the companies' noisy sales office. The companies initially allowed Vely to make calls from his home, but later rescinded his full-time telework arrangement, failed to provide an alternate reasonable accommodation, and refused to engage in the interactive process to determine a suitable alternate reasonable accommodation. In addition, the companies fired Vely in retaliation for his request for a reasonable accommodation, the EEOC alleged.
Such alleged conduct violates the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which prohibits discrimination based on disability. The law also requires an employer to provide a reasonable accommodation to an employee with a disability unless doing so would cause significant difficulty or expense for the employer. The EEOC filed suit its lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware, Civil Action No. 11-cv-000861, after first attempting to resolve the matter through its conciliation process.
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Source: EEOC
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