Target sued for unlawful employee treatment

A labor discrimination lawsuit filed in Los Angeles claims Target Stores. Inc., unlawfully denied reasonable accommodations to an employee with disability impairments, and substantially reduced his work hours due to his medical conditions.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) filed the lawsuit on Aug. 24. The EEOC establishes that Target subjected his employee at the chain’s Foothill Ranch location, in southern Orange County, to discriminatory practices on the basis of disability when it failed to notify his job coach and parents of any individual meetings involving work issues and job performance, as they requested.

The disabled worker was unable to fully communicate with others without the assistance of a job coach because of his cerebral palsy, and limited intellectual functioning.

Hence, the disabled employee was compelled to attend these in-person meetings alone, even though the job coaches and his parents have made several requests to be present in the meetings. Target hired the employee with full knowledge of his disabilities and needs for reasonable accommodations, wrote the EEOC.

The EEOC filed its lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, after it failed to reach an out of court settlement. Target's alleged conduct violates Title I of the American with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990, and Title I of the Civil Rights Act of 1991.

Anna Y. Park, EEOC Los Angeles office district regional attorney, said the retail chain store knew well in advance it was dealing with an employee with a disability, and failed to provide assistance as required by the ADA and the 1991 Civil Rights Act.

“What is particularly disturbing here is that Target already knew this employee was disabled and needed assistance with communicating during in-person meetings,” said attorney Park. “Target’s failure to provide a reasonable accommodation denied him equal benefits and privileges of employment. Despite his disabilities, the employee in this case was qualified and motivated to work, but Target denied him an equal opportunity to succeed in the workplace.”

Target’s corporate offices are located in Minneapolis, Minn. It operates more than 1,700 stores in 49 states in the country, including more than 240 Super Target outlets. Target currently hires about 351,000 employees.