UPS Settles Improper Firing Claim
By Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express
December 12, 2006

PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA--Eugenio D'Oliveira will receive $100,000 from United Parcel Service as part of an agreement that settles a disability discrimination suit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

UPS terminated D'Oliveira in July 2004, after he had worked 17 years as a sorter/loader, saying his retinitis pigmentosa -- an eye condition that leads to permanent vision loss -- made him a threat to his own safety and that of other workers.

In the suit, filed May 10 in federal court, EEOC alleged that UPS dismissed D'Oliveira without consulting his physician, obtaining objective medical or factual evidence about his disability, and failed to determine whether a reasonable accommodation could reduce any safety threats that he might have presented.

UPS did not admit to any wrongdoing in the settlement, which also calls for them to provide training on disability discrimination for employees at the worksite where D'Oliveira had worked.

Related:
"UPS settles case alleging discrimination" (Philadelphia Daily News)
http://www.philly.com/mld/dailynews/news/local/16219243.htm
"Would the real AODP please stand up?" May 21, 2006 (Inclusion Daily Express Weblog)
http://www.inclusiondaily.com/news/06/red/1212e.htm

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Reproduced here under special arrangement with Inclusion Daily Express international disability rights news service.
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