<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div><br><br><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">-- <br>Miranda b. Kilby</span><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Ph: <a dir="ltr" href="tel:(352)942-0417" x-apple-data-detectors="true" x-apple-data-detectors-type="telephone" x-apple-data-detectors-result="2">(352)942-0417</a></span></div></div><div><br>Begin forwarded message:<br><br></div><blockquote type="cite"><div><b>From:</b> "Danielsen, Chris via NFBNet-Members-List" <<a href="mailto:nfbnet-members-list@nfbnet.org">nfbnet-members-list@nfbnet.org</a>><br><b>Date:</b> December 15, 2017 at 9:29:03 PM EST<br><b>To:</b> <a href="mailto:nfbnet-members-list@nfbnet.org">nfbnet-members-list@nfbnet.org</a><br><b>Subject:</b> <b>[Nfbnet-members-list] Sheltered Workshop and Honda of America Manufacturing Sued for Disability Discrimination</b><br><b>Reply-To:</b> "Danielsen, Chris" <<a href="mailto:CDanielsen@nfb.org">CDanielsen@nfb.org</a>><br><br></div></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><div>
<div align="center">Sheltered Workshop and Honda of America Manufacturing
Sued for Disability Discrimination<br>
<br>
Sheltered Workshop Employee who Earned Subminimum Wages Brings Unique
Employment Discrimination Action<br>
</div>
<br>
Yesterday, Michael A. Denoewer, an individual with autism, filed suit in
the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio
against his former employer, U-CO Industries, a sheltered workshop
located in Marysville, Ohio, and Honda of America Manufacturing (Honda),
for which U-CO is a Tier 1 Supplier.<br>
<br>
Mr. Denoewer alleges that U-CO Industries, his former employer,
discriminated against him because of his disabilities when it failed to
evaluate him for jobs in the workshop that he was otherwise qualified to
perform and that provided higher pay, greater opportunities for
advancement, and additional training opportunities. Instead, during the
nearly seven-and-a-half years that he was employed by U-CO Industries,
Mr. Denoewer was relegated to piece-rate work for which he received as
little as $1.38 per hour after taxes. Mr. Denoewer asserts that these
actions were based on erroneous assumptions and stereotypes about his
disabilities, and not on any objective assessment of his abilities, in
violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act.<br>
<br>
Mr. Denoewer’s lawsuit against Honda is one of the first of its kind to
be brought for aiding and abetting a sheltered workshop’s discrimination.
Honda contracts with U-CO Industries for parts that are used in Honda’s
new vehicles. As a Production Associate at U-CO Industries, Mr. Denoewer
worked to assemble materials for Honda’s Owner’s Manuals. Because U-CO
Industries is a Tier 1 supplier for Honda, a coveted designation that
allows the workshop to supply Honda with components that go directly into
new vehicles, Honda, in turn, closely monitors U-CO’s operations, labor
costs, workforce composition, and workplace methods. Mr. Denoewer alleges
that Honda aided, abetted, incited, and compelled U-CO into doing acts
declared discriminatory under Ohio law, including discriminating against
him on the basis of disability by relegating him to less desirable
positions within the workshop.<br>
<br>
“Paying workers with disabilities less than the minimum wage reflects low
expectations based on false perceptions of our capacity,” said Mark
Riccobono, President of the National Federation of the Blind, which is
assisting in this litigation. “Relegating workers like Michael Denoewer
to low-paying, dead-end work based solely on the characteristic of
disability is the very definition of discrimination. The National
Federation of the Blind is committed to making sure that workers with
disabilities are valued for what we can do and afforded the basic rights
to which all workers are entitled.”<br>
<br>
“Michael Denoewer understands that he has rights like any other employee
and that U-CO Industries and Honda have obligations to evaluate him on
the merits, not based on unproven and erroneous assumptions about his
capabilities,” said Regina Kline, an attorney for the Plaintiffs. “That
an employer holds itself out as a special employer of people with
disabilities does not immunize it from the obligations that attach to any
other employer under the ADA. Moreover, contractors must be aware of the
labor conditions in sheltered workshops to avoid aiding and abetting
discrimination. It vitiates the very purpose of disability employment
programs to deny employees like Michael Denoewer the opportunity to
advance within the workshop’s operations.”<br>
<br>
Marc Maurer, another attorney for the Plaintiffs, explained, “The ADA and
its provisions prohibiting employer discrimination flow from the
presumption that people with disabilities have value and can contribute
in the workplace and society. Paying workers with certain characteristics
subminimum wages and refusing to consider them for jobs for which they
are otherwise qualified sends the false message that they have no value
and violates the law.”<br>
<br>
The Complaint is available at
<a href="http://www.browngold.com/wbcntntprd1/wp-content/uploads/Denoewer-v-UCO-Honda-Complaint.pdf">
http://www.browngold.com/wbcntntprd1/wp-content/uploads/Denoewer-v-UCO-Honda-Complaint.pdf</a>
. <br>
<br>
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<br>
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