Dillard’s settles suit over disclosures

— Dillard’s Inc. has agreed to pay $2 million to settle a discrimination lawsuit that said the department store violated the law by requiring workers to disclose their medical conditions when they took medical leave.

The Little Rock-based company entered into a 3-year consent decree with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that will require Dillard’s to pay the employees involved in the lawsuit and create a class fund for unidentified employees who were “impacted by the policy requiring disclosure of medical information to excuse an absence.”

The consent decree, filed Tuesday, resolves a 4-year-old class action lawsuit that says the Little Rock-based company violated the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said that since 2005, employees for Dillard’s nationwide were required to submit a doctors note that said they had been treated and the exact nature of their medical condition in order for an excused absence.

“While the class members had verifications from doctors to assure Dillard’s that the absences were due to medical reasons, many did not feel comfortable disclosing the specifics of their conditions to the company,” said the commission in a news release Tuesday.

The lawsuit was filed by the commission in 2008 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California on behalf of Corina Scott, who was a cosmetics counter employee at a Dillard’s store in El Centro, Calif., and other workers who said they were required to detail the nature of their medical conditions.

The commission said in a news release that Scott and other workers were also fired by Dillard’s for refusing to provide details of their medical conditions.

In the consent decree, Dillard’s denies it retaliated against Scott.

The release said employees were also fired for taking more time off than allowed for sick leave. The commission said the policy violated the Americans With Disabilities Act, which prohibits employers from asking about the disabilities of their workers unless it relates to the job.

In a statement released Tuesday, Dillard’s said the policy requiring employees to provide a doctor’s note identifying the medical condition in order to have a medical absence excused was “abandoned in 2007.” Dillard’s said the company’s policy of maximum leave for medically related issues is also no longer in effect.

“Further, the company denies that either policy violated the [Americans with Disabilities Act],” the statement said. “However, in order to avoid further protracted litigation with the [commission] over policies that are no longer in effect, the company agreed to not reinstate the policies at issue as well as to other injunctive relief, and to establish a class fund from which current and former associates who believe they were adversely affected by the policies can make a claim.”

Dillard’s said it would attempt to notify associates who have been identified as “potential claimants.”

Employees who worked at a Dillard’s store between Aug. 16, 2005, and Aug. 15, 2009, may qualify for the monetary award from the fund for unidentified employees.

“We commend Dillard’s for agreeing to measures that will prevent and effectively address potential disability discrimination,” Anna Park, regional attorney for the commission’s Los Angeles district office, said in the news release.

The consent decree, which resolves all claims against Dillard’s, requires the company to hire a consultant to review its policies and procedures regarding employee training.

Business, Pages 28 on 12/19/2012

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