Geisinger to pay $450K to settle disability discrimination lawsuit
A major health care system that operates in Centre County agreed to pay $450,000 to settle a lawsuit that alleged the company discriminated against workers with disabilities.
Geisinger Health, along with two affiliated entities, finalized the settlement last week with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The money — representing back pay and statutory damages — will be paid to six workers by about the end of March.
“Disability discrimination has no place in the workplace,” regional EEOC attorney Debra Lawrence said Tuesday in a written statement. “Federal law prohibits employers from retaliating against or interfering with employees’ rights secured under the Americans with Disabilities Act, including when they seek a reasonable accommodation.”
The federal agency alleged Geisinger denied reasonable accommodations, including job-protected leave and reassignment without competition, to workers with disabilities since 2018. The health system’s policies, according to the lawsuit, limited protected leave to a specified duration and required returning employees to apply and compete for their own positions if the spot was vacant.
Geisinger was further accused of manipulating vacancies and job postings to interfere with the efforts of employees attempting to secure their prior position or obtain a new one, the EEOC said in a press release.
Geisinger denied the allegations and did not admit fault or liability in the settlement. In one instance, the health system said it provided an initial eight weeks of leave for an employee before offering an additional 11 weeks.
After highlighting the agreement carries no admission of wrongdoing, Geisinger told the Centre Daily Times it believes the settlement will “help us move forward and continue to focus on our core mission of delivering exceptional healthcare services.”
“Geisinger remains committed to ensuring its policies comply with the law and that we continue to hire the most appropriate individuals for positions within our organization,” the health system said in a written statement. “These policies are fundamental to our mission of providing the highest quality of care to our patients, and they ensure that we continue to attract and retain the best talent in the healthcare industry.”
The settlement also requires Geisinger to consider changes to its existing policies, train all employees and managers on disability discrimination and submit semiannual reports regarding employees who were terminated after taking leave.
The settlement was approved by U.S. District Judge Karen S. Marston.