Employer pays $24,000 for Hep C firing
Employer pays $24,000 for Hepatitis C firing
Associated Press
ST. LOUIS - A former convenience store employee who was fired for having Hepatitis C has been awarded $24,000 in a lawsuit settlement, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said Thursday.
The EEOC sued Hoffmann Oil Co. in September for violating the Americans with Disabilities Act with the dismissal. The gas station and convenience store in Montgomery City agreed to pay the cashier $24,000, according to the EEOC.
Barbara Seely, an EEOC attorney, said she could not release the employee's name. A message left by The Associated Press with an owner at Hoffmann Oil was not immediately returned Thursday.
The lawsuit said Hoffmann Oil fired the woman on March 5, 2003, one day after she started her job, when it learned she had Hepatitis C. The company in the small town between Columbia and St. Louis recruited the woman after a supervisor observed her doing a good job at another convenience store.
The company was afraid she would spread the virus to customers and other employees, the EEOC said, but the county health department said that wouldn't happen if she took normal precautions.
The Centers for Disease Control has stated in a similar case that the possibility of transmission is slight and that employees should not be dismissed on that basis, the commission said.
http://www.belleville.com/mld/belleville/news/state/14502027.htm
Associated Press
ST. LOUIS - A former convenience store employee who was fired for having Hepatitis C has been awarded $24,000 in a lawsuit settlement, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said Thursday.
The EEOC sued Hoffmann Oil Co. in September for violating the Americans with Disabilities Act with the dismissal. The gas station and convenience store in Montgomery City agreed to pay the cashier $24,000, according to the EEOC.
Barbara Seely, an EEOC attorney, said she could not release the employee's name. A message left by The Associated Press with an owner at Hoffmann Oil was not immediately returned Thursday.
The lawsuit said Hoffmann Oil fired the woman on March 5, 2003, one day after she started her job, when it learned she had Hepatitis C. The company in the small town between Columbia and St. Louis recruited the woman after a supervisor observed her doing a good job at another convenience store.
The company was afraid she would spread the virus to customers and other employees, the EEOC said, but the county health department said that wouldn't happen if she took normal precautions.
The Centers for Disease Control has stated in a similar case that the possibility of transmission is slight and that employees should not be dismissed on that basis, the commission said.
http://www.belleville.com/mld/belleville/news/state/14502027.htm