Breast Cancer Disability Bias Claim

In a July 22, 2009 Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (”EEOC”) Press Release, EEOC attorneys announced that a Maryland medical practice will pay $125,000.00 and furnish significant remedial relief to settle a disability discrimination lawsuit in which the EEOC charged that the medical practice refused to return an employee to work who had recovered from breast cancer surgery.  According to the EEOC Press Release, the disability discrimination lawsuit alleged that the medical facility violated the Americans With Disabilities Act (”ADA”) when it discriminated against the employee by firing her when she had attempted to return to work after recovering from serious surgical complications.  As stated in the Press Release, she had been employed as a referral clerk for the practice for nearly 25 years and was diagnosed with breast cancer in January of 2007.  See, http://www.eeoc.gov/press/7-22-09a.html .  About one week before her approved medical leave ended, she was called into work on May 31, 2007 and told her employer that she intended to work without interruption while undergoing her remaining chemotherapy sessions and radiation therapy for her cancer.  The practice administrator then allegedly cited examples of people she knew whose cancer treatments made them too sick to work.  At the meeting, the employee was presented with a termination letter that stated she was being fired because she was “currently unable to return to work on a full time basis … Due to the seriousness of her illness, and extended nature of the treatment required … we must exercise our option to permanently fill your position.”  In this regard, the ADA prohibits employers from making employment decisions based on assumptions and misinformation about a person’s medical condition, according to the Press Release. 

The EEOC stated that it has issued a compliance assistance document on cancer in the workplace, and the publication explains how the ADA might apply to job applicants and employees who have or had cancer.  The document is said to be available on the EEOC’s website and the website address provided was listed in the Press Release as http://www.eeoc.gov/facts/cancer.html . 

An EEOC Senior Trial Attorney was quoted in the Press Release as saying that “This case should remind employers of their legal responsibility to women working with breast cancer [that] employment decisions cannot be made based upon fears and stereotypes about a person’s medical condition.”