Walmart is accused of firing an employee with epilepsy for missing work to recover from seizures and has agreed to settle three lawsuits for $175,000 in North Carolina, federal officials said.

“We don’t tolerate discrimination of any kind and provide reasonable accommodations to thousands of associates,” a spokesperson for Walmart said in a statement shared with McClatchy News. “We are glad that we have resolved this matter.”

In September 2016, one of the company’s employees at a location in Henderson, N.C. was diagnosed with a seizure disorder, according to the complaint lodged by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

The employee’s mother, who was her legal guardian, told the Walmart supervisor about her daughter’s diagnosis and gave her a doctor’s note, officials said. The mom said her daughter would occasionally need to miss work while recovering from a seizure, according to the filing.

The supervisor said Walmart doesn’t accept doctor’s notes, but said the worker’s absences would be excused as long as the mother notified the supervisor about the reason, according to the complaint filed in April 2023.

From January to May 2017, the woman had five seizures that her mother notified her employer about, federal officials said in the complaint. But Walmart didn’t excuse her absences despite what her supervisor said, and on May 23, 2017, two days after the woman missed a shift because of a seizure, the company fired her for her attendance, officials said.

EEOC officials say Walmart didn’t provide a “reasonable accommodation” of intermittent leave, violating the Americans with Disabilities Act. The woman was awarded $50,000, the federal agency said.

The EEOC filed two additional lawsuits against Walmart locations in Raleigh and Statesville, N.C. The company agreed to pay $85,000 to a three-year former employee with Crohn’s disease, an autoimmune disorder that largely affects the gastrointestinal system.

Walmart didn’t excuse all of her absences, including when she needed to go to the emergency room, and she lost her job, officials said in another lawsuit.

The company is also accused of demoting and later firing a man with epilepsy over absences related to his medical condition and agreed to pay him $40,000.

As part of the consent decrees, Walmart agreed to provide training on the ADA and comply with its policies without admitting wrongdoing in the three cases.

© 2024 McClatchy News
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC

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