EEOC Sues Alto Ingredients for Disability Discrimination

CHICAGO – Alto Ingredients, Inc., a manufacturer of industrial and food-grade, corn-based alcohols, violated the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) when it terminated an electrician from its campus in Pekin, Illinois, because of his disability, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charged in a lawsuit filed today.

According to the EEOC’s lawsuit, when the electrician applied for a job at Alto, he told the company that he was disabled due to back injury sustained during service in the U.S. Navy. The electrician passed Alto’s pre-hire physical and was hired. His employment was successful and free of accidents, and Alto praised him for his technical ability and troubleshooting skills. Nevertheless, after coworkers said they were worried that the electrician had difficulty with climbing stairs and ladders and might fall, Alto informed the electrician it was firing him because of safety concerns. Alto made this decision without any objective or medical evidence that the electrician’s disability presented any actual safety risk. And it did so even though the electrician passed the company’s pre-hire physical, which tested his ability to climb ladders and stairs. 

Such conduct violates the ADA, which prohibits employers from discharging qualified workers based on actual or perceived disabilities. An employer may consider a significant risk of substantial harm to the safety of a worker when making an employment decision, but such a decision must be made in compliance with the ADA. Specifically, an employer must conduct an individualized assessment of the worker’s ability to safely perform the functions of the job and must base its assessment on the most current medical knowledge and/or the best available objective evidence. If such evidence shows that there is a safety risk, the employer must also consider whether any reasonable accommodation would sufficiently reduce the risk. 

The EEOC filed suit in the Central District of Illinois (EEOC v. Alto Ingredients, Inc., Civil Action No. 1:24-cv-01269-JES-JEH), after first attempting to reach a pre-litigation settlement through the agency’s conciliation process. The EEOC seeks monetary relief for the former employee, including back pay, and compensatory and punitive damages. The EEOC also seeks injunctive relief to prevent discriminatory practices in the future.

“Under federal civil rights law, an employer may not simply fire an employee based on an unverified, subjective concern that his disability raises a safety issue,” said Greg Gochanour, regional attorney for the EEOC’s Chicago District Office. “The Alto employee in this case was a capable and experienced electrician, who should have been judged based on his performance, not based on assumptions related to his disability.”

Amrith Aakre, district director of the EEOC’s office in Chicago, said, “If an employer believes an individual’s disability creates a genuine workplace safety risk, that belief must be objectively reasonable and based on actual evidence. The EEOC is committed to enforcing this well-established rule.”

The EEOC's Chicago District Office is responsible for processing charges of employment discrimination, administrative enforcement and the conduct of agency litigation in Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa and North and South Dakota, with area offices in Milwaukee and Minneapolis.

More information about disability discrimination is available at https://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc-disability-related-resources. 

The EEOC advances opportunity in the workplace by enforcing federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination. More information is available at www.eeoc.gov. Stay connected with the latest EEOC news by subscribing to our email updates.