The U.S. Department of Labor is suing a company it says discriminated against a disabled employee when it fired her after she asked for an ergonomic chair.
A worker with back pain was fired from a company in Virginia after she asked for an ergonomic chair, according to the US Department of Labor.
Department sued against Resource Metrix, an Alexandria-based consulting and software development company that contracts with the military and federal government, on Sept. 29 and accused it of discriminating against an employee because of her disability, according to a news release.
Resource Metrix did not immediately return a request for comment from McClatchy News on Oct. 5.
Before the employee was hired in 2019, she told hiring managers and human resources administrators about her disability and said she would need an ergonomic chair to work, according to the release.
She has “regular neck pain which makes it difficult to sit still,” the lawsuit says.
The woman arrived for her first day of work on Sept. 3, 2019, and did not have an ergonomic chair to sit in, the Labor Department said. The company issued her a “replacement chair” that made her back worse.
She reported the problem to human resources on Sept. 6 and was allowed to leave work to see a doctor, the lawsuit states. The company told her it would provide her with an ergonomic chair.
Her doctor sent a note to her employer confirming her condition and saying she needed special conditions to be able to work, according to the Department of Labor.
The employee received an email from the company on Sept. 10 saying she was fired for absenteeism, even though her absences were excused, while she waited for the company to purchase an ergonomic chair, the lawsuit says.
When she told her boss she was on vacation while she waited for a chair, he replied, “Don’t give me the disability excuse,” the lawsuit says.
The Mid-Atlantic regional director of the Labor Department’s Office of Federal Contract Enforcement Programs, Samuel Maiden, called the company’s actions “discriminatory and unacceptable.”
“Companies will not be allowed to take advantage of contracts with the federal government to unlawfully discriminate in the employment process on the basis of a disability,” Maiden said.
According to the release, the US Department of Labor is seeking “reinstatement, back pay, interest, back pay and all other employment benefits for the terminated employee.”