Kroger Texas L.P. – Houston Division, operator of Kroger grocery store #300 in Houston’s Clear Lake/NASA area, violated federal employment law when it failed to accommodate and then fired an employee because of her disability, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charged in a lawsuit filed last week.
In its lawsuit, the EEOC charged that a self-service checkout attendant suffering from neuropathy, who for three preceding years worked successfully using a walker, was stripped of that reasonable accommodation by new management. The employee’s neuropathy limited her ability to walk and move, and her feet went numb if she was required to stand for too long.
Kroger’s new management failed to interact with the employee to determine if the previously granted accommodation was reasonable or if another was potentially available. Instead, management told her to seek leave – which she did not want or need – until she could return to work without an accommodation. The employee was terminated by Kroger when she could not support a need for leave with medical documentation, according to the suit.
Such alleged conduct violates the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which prohibits employers from discriminating against employees because of their disabilities, including denying such individuals a reasonable accommodation, absent undue hardship, and firing them because they need an accommodation.
The EEOC filed suit (U.S. EEOC v. Kroger Texas L.P. – Houston Division, Civil Action No. 4:26-cv-02448) in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, Houston Division, after first attempting to reach a pre-litigation settlement through its conciliation process.
Source: EEOC
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