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Former Walmart Employee With Down Syndrome Receives $ 125 Million In Discrimination Lawsuit After She Was Fired For Missing Work Because Her Schedule Was Altered When She Had To Stick To A Strict Routine
- Longtime Wisconsin Walmart employee Marlo Spaeth with Down syndrome was fired in 2015 after the store changed her schedule
- As part of his condition, Spaeth must maintain a rigid daily schedule, which includes having dinner at the same time every night.
- Instead of accommodating her, Walmart fired her, according to a 2017 lawsuit filed by the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on behalf of Spaeth
- A jury awarded Spaeth $ 125 million in punitive damages plus $ 150,000 in damages on Thursday compensation
- The $ 125 million will likely be reduced to $ 300,000, which is the upper limit for damages in ADA cases, a Walmart spokesperson said.
- The EEOC said the federal cap does not apply to arrears, firsts, litigation costs or interest
A longtime former Walmart employee with Down syndrome was awarded $ 125 million in a discrimination case after the retail giant changed her work schedule and ultimately fired her for chronic absenteeism.
Marlo Spaeth worked for the Manitowoc, Wisconsin store for 16 years before being fired in 2015.
In the lawsuit, she said she had to maintain a rigid daily schedule as part of her condition, which included having dinner at the same time every night.
The store changed her hours in 2014 and made her work longer days, which caused health problems in Spaeth, according to the lawsuit filed by the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in 2017 on her behalf.
When Spaeth asked to adjust her schedule from 60 to 90 minutes to return to her shift from noon to 4 p.m., Walmart fired her and later refused to rehire her, according to the lawsuit.
An eight-member jury in Green Bay, Wisconsin sided with Spaeth and awarded him $ 125 million in punitive damages on Thursday and an additional $ 150,000 in compensatory damages.
While that number is likely reduced to $ 300,000, which is the maximum limit for damages in ADA cases, a Walmart spokesperson said, the EEOC said it did not apply to arrears, at first, at litigation costs or at interest.
Walmart lost disability discrimination case after firing employee with Down syndrome from one of its Wisconsin stores
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed a complaint in 2017 on behalf of Marlo Spaeth and announced the verdict on Friday.
Walmart spokesman Randy Hargrove said in an emailed statement to media that the company does not tolerate discrimination and regularly welcomes thousands of employees each year.
“Although Ms. Spaeth’s schedule was adjusted, it remained within the time frame when she indicated she was available,” Hargrove said in the statement. “We are sensitive to this situation and believe we could have resolved this issue with Ms. Spaeth, but the EEOC’s requests were unreasonable.”
Gregory Gochanour, regional attorney for the EEOC district office in Chicago, said in a statement that the jury recognized “and was apparently quite offended that Ms Spaeth had lost her job due to unnecessary – and illegal – inflexibility. from Walmart “.
Megan Bigler Tafolla, a financial social work educator, applauded the verdict in a four-tweet thread.
“The idea that companies like Walmart would rather budget thousands (of dollars) for litigation instead of doing the right thing for their employees makes me sick. Putting all this stress on a person and their loved ones because someone didn’t want to change their schedule? “
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