Subway vowed to help Arizona worker with autism — but fired him after 4 shifts, feds say
A Subway in Arizona promised to accommodate a worker with autism but fired him after a few shifts, federal officials said.
The man was hired in March 2019 as a sandwich artist at a Subway in Buckeye and operated by RCC Partners, LLC, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said in a news release on May 10.
The EEOC said his firing went against the Americans with Disabilities Act — a law enacted in 1990 that guarantees people with disabilities an equal opportunity to employment opportunities.
Under the law, it’s illegal to discriminate against someone with a disability during the hiring process, training and in pay, among other aspects of employment. Employers are also required to accommodate employees with disabilities.
Attorneys for RCC Partners did not immediately respond to McClatchy News’ request for comment.
Before he was hired, the man’s mother told the sandwich shop’s manager he would need accommodations because of his autism and ADHD, the complaint states.
Those accommodations included requiring specific and repeated instructions, redirection and follow-up explanations, the complaint states.
Subway didn’t provide the man with any of the “reasonable accommodations” or give him proper training before he was fired after four shifts, the lawsuit says.
To settle the lawsuit, RCC Partners agreed to pay the man $30,000, according to consent decree documents.
Subway is also required to revise its equal employment opportunity policy, provide disability discrimination training to all of its employees and provide reports to the EEOC, consent decree documents state.
“This settlement represents a step towards the EEOC’s goal of eradicating disability discrimination against workers with intellectual disabilities in the workplace,” EEOC’s regional attorney Mary Jo O’Neill said in the release.
Buckeye is about 35 miles west of Phoenix.
This story was originally published May 10, 2022 at 7:13 PM with the headline "Subway vowed to help Arizona worker with autism — but fired him after 4 shifts, feds say."
