ST. LOUIS - Home Service Oil Company, doing business as Express Mart,
will pay $25,000 and furnish other relief to settle a disability
discrimination lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission (EEOC), the federal agency
announced today.
The EEOC charged that the Barnhart, Mo.-based company, which operates
nine Express Mart convenience stores near St. Louis, violated federal
disability discrimination law by failing to hire a job applicant with
Tourette's syndrome and
neurofibromatosis for a part-time sales clerk position at its Cedar
Hill, Mo., store because of his medical conditions.
According to the EEOC, the store manager refused to consider the
applicant for employment because of his noticeable facial tic caused by
his medical conditions. The EEOC alleged the store manager told her
assistant store manager that she did not
want such an individual working in the store and threw away his
application.
Such alleged hiring discrimination violates the Americans with
Disabilities Act (ADA), which prohibits employers from refusing to
consider qualified job applicants because of their physical or mental
disabilities. The EEOC filed its lawsuit
(Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. Home Service Oil Co. d/b/a
Express Mart, Civil Action No. 4:19-cv-02645JAR) in 2019 in U.S.
District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri.
The three-year consent decree settling the suit, entered by Judge
John A. Ross, requires Home Service Oil Company to pay compensatory
damages of $25,000 to the discrimination victim. In addition to other
relief, the company will encourage job
applicants with disabilities to apply for open positions; ensure that it
has strong policies and procedures in place to prevent disability
discrimination; provide training to managers regarding disability
discrimination; provide reasonable
accommodations to disabled employees and applicants; and report
complaints of disability discrimination to the EEOC.
"We appreciate Home Service Oil Company's commitment to encouraging
applicants with disabilities to apply for positions in their stores
going forward," said Andrea G. Baran, the EEOC's regional attorney in
St. Louis. "People with disabilities
make significant contributions to workplaces every day and are too often
an untapped resource, even in a tight labor market."
L. Jack Vasquez, Jr., director of the EEOC's St. Louis District
office, added, "A strong human resources presence is essential to ensure
employers comply with the law. With the company's new leadership in
this area, we are optimistic that this
employer will offer equal employment opportunities to qualified
applicants regardless of physical or mental conditions that have no
bearing on their ability to perform the job."
The EEOC is responsible for enforcing federal laws prohibiting
employment discrimination. The St. Louis District Office oversees
Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and a portion of southern
Illinois.
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