St. John Health System, Inc. of Tulsa will pay
$100,000 and furnish other relief to settle a disability discrimination
lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the
agency announced. The EEOC had charged that the company violated
the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) by failing to reasonably
accommodate a hearing-impaired operating room scrub technician.
According to the EEOC’s suit, LaQuita Reherman had been employed by
St. John for approximately six years when she was removed from her
scrub technician position in March 2006 after several physicians
complained about her being hard of hearing. Reherman wears hearing aids
in both ears, the EEOC said, but would have been able to hear doctors’
instructions adequately if it were not for their practice of playing
loud music in the operating room. These disturbances, coupled with her
hearing impairment, caused the problems, the EEOC said.
Reherman made it known to St. John that she needed assistance in
finding another position, but the hospital made no effort to assist
her. The hospital simply put her in another position temporarily and
then told her to find a new job in the hospital system, the EEOC said.
St. John terminated Reherman in June 2006 after she proved unable to
find a vacant position.
Disability discrimination violates the ADA, which requires employers
to make reasonable accommodations for employees’ disabilities as long
as this does not pose an undue hardship on the business. The EEOC filed
suit after first attempting to reach a pre-litigation settlement.
Under the terms of the consent decree St. John
agreed to pay LaQuita Reherman $100,000 as damages. The company also
agreed to provide disability discrimination training to all management
and supervisory employees and to report all requests for reasonable
accommodation to the EEOC for the next three years.