The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has charged that poultry processor Wayne Farms LLC illegally discriminated against a class of employees because of their disabilities. The EEOC files a lawsuit against the company on August 18, 2016.
In its suit, EEOC charged that Wayne Farms violated the rights of a class of workers with disabilities by maintaining an inflexible attendance policy. The policy capped the number of allowable employee absences in a manner that made little to no allowance for disability-related absences. For example, the suit said that an employee, Latonya Hodges, provided medical excuses for absences related to her asthma, yet was fired upon reaching the maximum number of allowable absences.