Safeway Grocery Settles Claim of Employee With Disability

On November 2, 2016, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) reported a settlement regarding a food services employee on disability leave for a job injury at Safeway Grocery.

Initially Safeway followed the law, Americans with Disabilities (ADA), which requires employers to reasonably accommodate employees with a disability; as such Safeway allowed the employee to work in a different position that did not require heavy lifting as she did in her previous assignment. However, Safeway unilaterally decided to place the employee on unpaid leave indefinitely, making the argument that the employee had exceeded what they deemed an allowable time lime and, therefore, could no longer enjoy the position with modified duty.

The Federal Disability Lawsuit was settled by Safeway because of a legal discrimination claim brought against it. The requirement of reasonable accommodation includes, but is not limited to, the employer reassigning an employee with a disability to another position, unless it can be established this would cause a significant expense to the employer and/or substantial difficulties associated with the same. There is no time limit provided the employee has a qualifying disability.

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