Worker with cancer fired after 52 years on the job, suit says. Now employer has to pay

An employee at an electric company was fired after battling cancer and a broken hip, an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission lawsuit said. Now, his former company has to pay.

S&C Electric Company, a designer and manufacturer for power transmission products located in Chicago, will pay a former principal designer $315,000 after a disability discrimination lawsuit, the EEOC announced in an April 21 news release.

The principal designer worked for S&C for over 52 years when he was diagnosed with cancer, the release said. He then had to recover from a broken hip, and took medical leave to heal.

According to the lawsuit, the employee wanted to return to his position after his medical leave. He gave multiple notes from his doctor that indicated he was ready to return to the job. The employee’s prior position mostly involved him working from a seated position, the release said.

However, the lawsuit alleges the company decided to “fire him rather than permitting him to return to work following a perfunctory medical examination by an S&C contracted doctor.”

This violated the Americans with Disabilities Act, the release said.

“Individuals with disabilities often face stereotypes in the workplace that they are incapable in some way of doing their job,” Gregory Gochanour, the regional attorney of EEOC’s Chicago office, said in the release. “Here, we had an employee who performed his job well for 52 years, fell on hard times, and when he was ready to return to the place where he had spent virtually his entire working life, he was turned away despite his qualifications.”

S&C will pay $315,000 to the estate of the employee, and is required to provide training to evaluators and employees regarding their obligations under the disability act.

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