Walmart ordered to pay fired employee with Down syndrome

• Walmart received a $ 125 million verdict on Friday in a disability discrimination case.
• The company fired Marlo Spaeth, an employee with Down syndrome who worked at Walmart for 16 years.
• Walmart said it expected the verdict to be reduced to $ 300,000 due to federal law.

A federal jury ruled on Friday that Walmart violated the Americans with Disabilities Act by firing an employee with Down’s Syndrome over problems with her work schedule.

After a four-day trial in Green Bay, Wisconsin, the jury awarded Marlo Spaeth $ 125 million in damages. Prior to his termination, Spaeth worked at Walmart for approximately 16 years.

A Walmart spokesperson told Insider the verdict should be reduced to $ 300,000, which is the maximum amount allowed under federal law.

The United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission represented Spaeth, presenting evidence on three allegations of disability discrimination against Walmart.

The commission said a change to Spaeth’s previously consistent work schedule had caused him “significant hardship” and that Walmart had rejected his request to revert to the previous work schedule through 60 adjustments. at 90 minutes. Instead, she was fired.

“We do not tolerate any form of discrimination and we regularly welcome thousands of associates each year,” Randy Hargrove, a spokesperson for Walmart, told Bloomberg Law. “We often adjust Associate schedules to meet our clients’ expectations and although Ms. Spaeth’s schedule was adjusted, it remained within the time frames that she indicated was available.

“We are sensitive to this situation and believe we could have resolved this issue with Ms. Spaeth, but the EEOC’s requests were unreasonable.”

The EEOC said evidence from the trial showed Spaeth consistently received positive reviews from its managers. After being fired, Spaeth asked to be rehired and was subsequently turned down.

Last year, Walmart paid $ 20 million to settle an EEOC lawsuit that found a physical aptitude test disproportionately excluded applicants from grocery order picker jobs.

“The jury recognized, and apparently was quite offended, that Ms Spaeth lost her job because of unnecessary – and illegal – inflexibility on the part of Walmart,” said Gregory Gochanour, regional attorney for the district office. of the EEOC in Chicago.