The EEOC's Houston district office sued the Houston Area Sheet Metal Joint Apprenticeship Committee on September 28, 2000 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas. The EEOC's complaint alleged that the defendant violated The Americans with Disabilities Act when it discriminated based on physical disability (deafness) by failing to hire an otherwise qualified deaf employee. The parties entered into a consent decree on August 27, 2002, which stipulated that the defendant would pay the complainant $30,000 in damages, hire the complainant and reasonably accommodate him in the workplace, provide ADA training for its employees, revise application requirements to exclude hearing and speaking, provide personal interviews for deaf applicants before declaring them unfit for work, and maintain records of these interviews and training sessions.

Aaron Weismann - 06/22/2007


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