National Association of the Deaf

General Electric Company recently settled an Americans with Disabilities Act complaint. The lawsuit was brought against GE by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and Michael Hager, who was represented by the NAD Law Center.

The EEOC claimed in its lawsuit that GE Appliances (GE) engaged in an unlawful employment practice at its Bloomington, Indiana facility. GE refused to train Michael Hager for a forklift operator position because of his deafness.

The lawsuit was settled when GE agreed to restructure a forklift operator job, creating a new assignment that can be performed by a deaf employee. Some tasks currently performed by other employees will be reassigned. By agreeing to do this, GE was able to satisfy its concerns for employee safety and also comply with the ADA.

This will be the first time a deaf employee has been allowed to be a forklift operator at GE's Bloomington plant.

Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) prohibits employers from discriminating against disabled people in employment situations. All employers of 15 or more persons are required to make reasonable accommodation to the physical or mental limitations of an employee.

Reasonable accommodations include providing TTYs or qualified sign language interpreter services, as well as transferring nonessential job duties.

It is unlawful not to make reasonable accommodation, unless it can be shown that the accommodation would impose an undue hardship on the operation of the business.

Employers also may not discriminate against a disabled employee in providing training.

The settlement in this case is a credit to the EEOC, to GE and to Mr. Hager himself.

Also, many people contacted the NAD Law Center, responding to our request for information about deaf individuals who work as forklift operators. The NAD Law Center wishes to thank everyone for their input, which has been useful in this case and in a number of others.