A Voyant Beauty lawsuit just came to an end after the company agreed to settle a case where it was accused of discriminating against a worker with a disability. The Voyant Beauty-EEOC case resulted from the company allegedly firing a deaf employee on her first day of work on the grounds that she would be unable to perform the duties she was hired for safely. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has been cracking down quite firmly on organizations that have been caught in violation of ADA rights in the workplace, pursuing civil action against the offending organizations very religiously.
More frequently than ever, employers are getting caught up in accusations of wrongful termination due to disability, which makes it all the more important for them to carefully review the state and national employment laws before deciding on any employee’s role at the company.
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Understanding the Voyant Beauty Lawsuit
Voyant Beauty, a personal care brand, has reportedly fired a deaf employee at the company’s Countryside, Illinois, facility after they determined that she could not work as a production worker there. As detailed in the Voyant Beauty EEOC report, despite being qualified to perform her role with or without any additional accommodations, the employee was removed from her role. The action was considered to be in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which lists the disability discrimination laws that need to be taken into consideration for such employees. The ADA rights in the workplace require that employers first try to provide reasonable accommodations for disabled employees unless doing so would cause undue hardship to the employer.
Responding to the Voyant Beauty lawsuit, the company decided to settle and agreed to pay $75,000 USD instead of fighting the case in court which would have led to an extended legal battle for the company. Additionally, the company will have to provide additional training to their management in dealing with people with disabilities in the workplace and educate them on the federal disability discrimination laws that they need to keep in mind from here on. The Voyant-Beauty EEOC case is just one instance of the kind of situations that disabled individuals have to face when it comes to earning a living. If finding employment is difficult for other able-bodied folk, the roadblocks that disabled individuals face are considerably higher.
For companies that want to avoid any wrongful termination due to disability or even understand the kind of accommodations they need to consider for their employees, the EEOC has detailed guidelines for compliance, even specifically for employees with hearing disabilities.
Hearing Disabilities in the Workplace and the Americans with Disabilities Act
The ADA rights in the workplace provide a clear outline of how it defines a hearing disability with a three-pronged approach, covering those who can “show that they are substantially limited in hearing or another major life activity,” those who have a record of some form on impairment that limited their activity in the past, or those who have faced some form of prohibitive action from an employer on the basis of hearing.
The Voyant Beauty-EEOC case in point, the guidelines include specifications on when employers can ask a prospective employer about the disability as well. Prior to making a job offer, employers cannot ask an employee about their medical conditions or any disabilities that they do or do not have as it would be a violation of the stated disability discrimination laws. The ADA also does not require applicants to disclose any current or past disabilities before they accept a job offer. Employees can go on to request accommodations after they accept the job roles as it is within their right to reveal the details only after they get the job.
An employer may ask an employee about their hearing condition after they get a job when they have clearly identified a performance issue in association with a possible medical condition. Additionally, employers can ask an employee about a hearing condition when it has reasons to doubt that the employee will be able to safely perform their duties in order to support their employees and provide reasonable accommodations to aid them in their work. The ADA regulations aim to help employees find a way to perform their roles better rather than to help employers replace the employee immediately.
There are a multitude of other guidelines the EEOC provides on how to work with people with disabilities in the workplace, which should be read, understood, and followed as carefully as possible to avoid any issues with the legal institution that can come up later. Coming back to the Voyant Beauty lawsuit, the $75,000 settlement puts an end to this case but there is still room for the company to revise its policies and work on management training in order to avoid such incidents in the future.