Sprouts $280k deaf discrimination settlement
News reports said the Sprouts grocery store chain will have to pay $280,000 to three deaf people as a part of a settlement in a discrimination lawsuit filed by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).
The lawsuit claimed that in February 2017, a Sprouts manager in Colorado told a deaf applicant for a cashier position that they couldn’t be hired as a cashier because of her deafness, but that she might be eligible for the bakery department. A few weeks later, a manager said this deaf person couldn’t work in the bakery because they had to hear an oven buzzer.
The lawsuit also claimed that when the other two deaf plaintiffs applied for jobs at other stores in Colorado, they requested ASL interpreters for the interview portion but that managers never made arrangements to bring in interpreters and then ignored the deaf plaintiffs’ follow-up emails.
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The lawsuit was settled on October 14. Other than the settlement money, Sprouts will have to send a letter of apology to each of the deaf parties, review and revise its ADA policies and provide more ADA training, and agree to not engage in discrimination based on disability in the future.
The EEOC’s Denver Field Office’s director said this settlement highlights the EEOC’s commitment to breaking down barriers that deaf and hard-of-hearing people face and ensuring they get equal employment opportunities.