A federal agency is suing O’Riley Auto Enterprises LLC., a national auto parts retailer, for failing to accommodate a disabled employee at its Belleville Distribution Center and firing him, instead.
The alleged violations were against an O’Reilly Auto Parts Distribution Center located at 8080 Haggerty Road in Van Buren Township, according to a news release from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).
The EEOC is a federal agency that polices workplace discrimination.
EEOC says O’Riley’s alleged conduct violates the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which prohibits discrimination based on disability.
Officials with O’Reilly Auto Parts did not immediately respond for comment when contacted by the Free Press on Tuesday afternoon.
Federal officials say O’Riley hired the employee as a commercial truck driver in 2015. Then, in the summer of 2022, he had a stroke and multiple seizures and was hospitalized in an intensive care unit.
After recovering from treatment, he was advised that he could not drive a commercial vehicle for five years.
He went to O’Riley, officials say, and requested to be reassigned to a non-driving position.
And although he qualified for multiple open and available positions, O’Reilly refused to offer him one of the positions, citing an internal policy which prohibited drivers from being reassigned to distribution centers.
Instead, O’Reilly terminated him, EEOC said.
“Employers are required under federal law to make reasonable accommodations for employees with disabilities, absent undue hardship, including reassignment to an open position,” said Kenneth Bird, regional attorney for the EEOC’s Indianapolis District. “O’Reilly’s refusal to reassign this employee to an open non-driving position violated the law, and the EEOC will continue to fight disability discrimination.”
The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan on June 23.
The lawsuit is seeking unspecified punitive damages, as well as injunctive relief to prevent future discrimination, back pay, and compensatory damages.
Federal officials say the suit comes after first attempting to reach a pre-litigation settlement through its administrative conciliation process.
O’Reilly Auto Parts operates more than 6,500 stores throughout the United States, Puerto Rico, Mexico and Canada.
Jalen Williams is a trending reporter at the Detroit Free Press. Contact him at jawilliams1@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: O’Reilly Auto Parts sued by feds over truck driver’s treatment
Reporting by Jalen Williams, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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By Jalen Williams, Detroit Free Press | USA TODAY Network
