
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has filed a lawsuit against Sam’s Club and its parent company Walmart Inc. alleging that the membership-only warehouse store illegally fired a disabled worker.
The suit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, said the longtime Sam’s Club employee sought to return to her job at the company’s Douglasville, Georgia, location in June 2022 following a medical leave of absence.
The employee had been in a car crash that left her with post-concussion syndrome, upper back pain, muscle spasms and chronic lower back pain. She sought “minor, temporary adjustments to her duties” as a reasonable accommodation for her disabilities, the EEOC said in a news release.
But after just one shift back on the job, the employee’s supervisor allegedly told her that she could not work with restrictions and would instead need to take another leave of absence.
As instructed, the employee sought additional leave, providing Sam’s Club with a date by which she would be capable of working without restriction. Sam’s Club then denied the employee’s requested leave and fired her, the lawsuit said. The store’s general manager allegedly told her Sam’s Club would not accommodate her injuries because they occurred outside of work.
The EEOC lawsuit alleges violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which prohibits disability discrimination. The agency said it sued after first attempting to reach a pre-litigation settlement through its administrative conciliation process.
Walmart has issued the following statement in response to similar EEOC lawsuits: “We have been a top employer for those with disabilities for years and have thousands of associates who perform their jobs with reasonable accommodation. We don’t tolerate discrimination of any kind and take allegations like this seriously. We are reviewing the complaint and will respond in court as appropriate.”