EEOC settles with Thomasville company

March 18--THOMASVILLE -- The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission settled with a Thomasville dialysis clinic over a disability discrimination claim filed by an employee who was fired four years ago.

Thomasville Dialysis agreed to pay $49,500 and provide other relief to settle the lawsuit brought by the EEOC, the federal agency announced Friday. The EEOC charged that Health Systems Management Inc., doing business as Thomasville Dialysis, failed to provide the employee with an accommodation for her disability and later fired her.

A local representative with Thomasville Dialysis told The High Point Enterprise that the company won't comment on the case.

According to the EEOC's complaint, the employee developed a form of macular degeneration, a genetic eye disorder that causes progressive vision loss. The employee worked for Thomasville Dialysis as a charge nurse.

In August 2013, after her condition advanced, she asked Thomasville Dialysis for "reasonable accommodations that would enable her to continue doing her job," according to the EEOC. Thomasville Dialysis denied the request and placed her on medical leave.

At the employee's request, representatives from the N.C. Division of Services for the Blind visited Thomasville Dialysis. The state staff demonstrated that the employee could safely perform her job through assisting devices.

The devices would have been provided through the state agency at no cost to Thomasville Dialysis. Instead of accepting the assistance, Thomasville Dialysis fired the employee in the fall of 2013, the EEOC reports.

The EEOC filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina after attempting to reach an out-of-court agreement with Thomasville Dialysis.

In addition to providing monetary relief to the former employee, Thomasville Dialysis entered into a three-year consent decree requiring it to develop and implement a policy that prohibits disability-based discrimination, according to the EEOC.

"The decree further requires the company to conduct annual training for its North Carolina employees, supervisors and managers on the Americans with Disability Act and its prohibition against disability discrimination in the workplace," according to the EEOC. "Thomasville Dialysis must also post an employee notice about the lawsuit and on employee rights under federal anti-discrimination laws at its Thomasville facility, as well as provide periodic reports to the EEOC."

pjohnson@hpenews.com -- 336-888-3528 -- @HPEpaul

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