[il-talk] FYI payment to blind applicant

[Patti Gregory-Chang]

Company must pay blind woman whose job offer was revoked

By Maria Kantzavelos
Law Bulletin staff writer

A federal judge in Chicago has entered a consent decree requiring a
nationwide staffing company to pay $100,000 to a woman whose job offer as a
recruiter was allegedly revoked after the company's owner realized that the
woman was blind, according to U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
attorneys who filed the disability discrimination lawsuit.

The EEOC contended that when the owner of Balance Staffing, Robert
Feinstein, hired Jocelyn Snower, a recruiter, to help him launch a Balance
Staffing center in Illinois, which was named Balance Financial Inc., the
owner did not realize that the new hire was blind, the attorneys said. The
agency alleged that when the owner did realize that the woman was blind, he
immediately revoked her job offer even though she already started recruiting
for him.

The EEOC further alleged that the defendants refused to pay Snower wages for
hours of work that she already performed, because of her disability.

EEOC supervisory trial attorney Diane I. Smason and trial attorney Laura R.
Feldman handled the case for the government, which brought the lawsuit in
September 2009 in federal court in Chicago.

The agency brought the suit under Title I of the Americans With Disabilities
Act of 1990 - which prohibits employers from discriminating against
qualified individuals with disabilities in job hiring, firing, advancement,
compensation and other terms, conditions and privileges of employment - and
under Title I of the Civil Rights Act of 1991, which allows for monetary
damages in employment discrimination cases.

"What's unique about Jocelyn is that she's legally blind, but she doesn't
use a walking stick or guide dog, or anything like that," Feldman said.
"When I first met her, I had no idea she was blind."

The EEOC attorneys said Snower started working for the staffing company in
June 2006 and that on Aug. 9, 2006, she received notification that her job
offer had been revoked. They contended that the owner of the staffing
company found out through another employee that the woman was blind,
specifically that she couldn't drive.

"It's the EEOC's position that she did not need to drive for the job - that
there's great public transportation, and she takes public transportation,"
Feldman said.

Smason said the woman served as a recruiter in the past at other companies,
and she had already proved to be a capable recruiter despite her disability.

"Absolutely she could've performed this job. In fact, she did perform the
same job for them for several weeks before the owner found out and let her
go," Smason said.

The defense, which denied the allegations, was represented by Seyfarth, Shaw
LLP partners Gerald L. Maatman Jr., and Christopher J. DeGroff, along with
associate Brandon L. Spurlock. They could not be reached for comment.

On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Ruben Castillo of the Northern District of
Illinois approved a three-year consent decree resolving the suit, with the
agreement of the parties.

Under the terms of the consent decree, $13,900 of the monetary damages are
to be paid as attorney's fees to the law firm of Abrahamson, Voracheck &
Levinson, which represented Snower during the EEOC's investigation before
the agency filed its lawsuit, Smason said. Seventy-five percent of the
remaining amount is to be apportioned as compensatory damages, and 25
percent is apportioned as back pay, according to the consent decree.

The consent decree requires Balance Staffing and Balance Professional Inc. -
the entity operating as Balance Staffing - to report to the EEOC any further
complaints of disability discrimination lodged by employees or job
applicants, Smason said. It also requires that the owner of the companies be
trained annually on disability discrimination, and contains an injunction
prohibiting the companies from engaging in employment practices that
discriminate on the basis of disability and from retaliating against anyone
who opposes disability discrimination, files a discrimination charge or
participates in a government investigation, proceeding, or hearing under the
ADA.

"We hope this puts employers on notice that they cannot summarily reject
people who are blind for employment," Smason said.

The case is EEOC v. Balance Staffing and Balance Staffing d/b/a Balance
Financial Inc., No. 09 CV-06004.

mkantzavelos at lbpc.com






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P.S.  National Federation of the Blind of Illinois is now on twitter at 
www.twitter.com/nfbi.
We also have a facebook page.  Just search for our full name.

Patti Gregory-Chang
President, National Federation of the Blind of Illinois
pattichang at att.net
www.nfbofillinois.org