[il-talk] FYI payment to blind applicant

[Deborah Kent Stein]

Bravo!  Hey, can we get this woman to convention?

Debbie


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Patti Gregory-Chang" <pattichang at att.net>
To: "NFB of Illinois Mailing List" <il-talk at nfbnet.org>; "Illinois 
Association of Blind Students List" <iabs-talk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Saturday, June 19, 2010 4:39 PM
Subject: [il-talk] FYI payment to blind applicant


>
> Company must pay blind woman whose job offer was revoked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
>
>
>
>
>
>
> To sponsor me in the race for independence which raises funds for the 
> Imagination Fund affiliated with the NFB Jernigan Institute, you can go to 
> www.raceforindependence.org.  Help us build innovative programs and 
> products to gain true independence.    For more information on NFB, the 
> Jernigan Institute and the Imagination Fund, go to www.nfb.org.
>
>
> 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
>
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