The Newberg Graphic Online

Attrell’s will pay $63K in disability discrimination settlement

Settlement — Funeral chapel will also implement anti-discrimination policies, ADA training

• By: Amanda Newman  
• Published: 2/4/2010 1:48:47 PM
• Last Updated: 2/4/2010 1:50:41 PM

    SEATTLE — Attrell’s Newberg Funeral Chapel has agreed to pay $62,500 and furnish other relief in a disability discrimination lawsuit, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced Wednesday.
    The EEOC, which enforces federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination, filed the lawsuit in September on behalf of Barbara Jackson, a former Attrell’s secretary. An amputee with a prosthetic leg, Jackson claimed she successfully worked for the funeral chapel for almost two years but was fired when she required the use of a wheelchair.
    Neither Attrell’s nor Jackson would comment on the settlement.
    According to the EEOC’s suit, Attrell’s violated federal law by not accommodating Jackson’s disability under the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA). An EEOC press release states that Attrell’s claimed Jackson couldn’t perform her duties if she couldn’t walk and noted that having an employee in a wheelchair might make their grieving clients feel bad. After Attrell’s fired her, Jackson had difficulties finding a comparable job and suffered financial hardship, the EEOC said.
    Attrell’s owner Leonard Attrell told this newspaper in September that the claim about a wheelchair upsetting clients was not true. “The only reason she was let go was that she was unable to do the job,” he said.
    The EEOC filed suit after attempting to reach a pre-litigation settlement. Jackson also retained a private attorney, Larry Linder, and separately sued the funeral chapel under state statutes.
    “Attrell’s fired Ms. Jackson based on its own stereotypes about what a person who uses a wheelchair can and cannot do,” A. Luis Lucero Jr., director of the EEOC’s Seattle field office, said in the release. “Ms. Jackson was not even given the opportunity to demonstrate her abilities to carry out her work functions using a chair. Such stereotyping harms people with disabilities, but it also hurts employers because they lose out on talented and qualified employees.”
    “You’d think in this day and age that handicapped people would be seen for what they can do, rather than what they can’t do,” Jackson told this newspaper in September.
    In addition to the monetary settlement, Attrell’s agreed to implement anti-discrimination policies and procedures in its work place. The company also agreed to provide training on the ADA and reasonable accommodations to all employees at its Newberg chapel. Attrell’s will provide periodic reports to EEOC on its compliance with the terms of the settlement.
    “Let this be a lesson to other employers: You must engage in the interactive process with employees who request accommodations,” William R. Tamayo, EEOC San Francisco regional attorney, said in the release. “Ms. Jackson’s request was reasonable. Allowing her to continue working from her wheelchair would have benefited Ms. Jackson, Attrell’s and the many clients who benefited from Ms. Jackson’s kind and diligent manner in attending to funeral arrangements. Instead, Ms. Jackson has been unemployed for over a year and has had to endure humiliation.”

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