Should we have been surprised by the announcement in July 2011 that telecommunications giant Verizon settled EEOC claims that it violated the Americans with Disability Act (ADA) through enforcement of Verizon’s no fault attendance policy? There were signals that such employer policies were problematic before that record-setting $20 million settlement. Indeed, in the past few years the EEOC has challenged a workers’ compensation leave exhaustion policy[1] and maximum leave periods.[2] And while it has been widely believed that regular attendance is an essential function of performing a job, cracks have appeared in this seemingly reliable concept.[3]
So perhaps there were signals that no fault attendance policies were at risk. And while there was no court adjudication of alleged ADA violations by Verizon, clearly there is much that can be learned from this historic settlement, the largest disability discrimination settlement in a single lawsuit in EEOC history.
