HIBBING TACONITE COMPANY SUED BY EEOC FOR DISABILITY DISCRIMINATION

Mine Refused to Hire Laborer With Hearing Impairment, Federal Agency Charges

MINNEAPOLIS – A Hibbing,  Minn., taconite mining company  violated federal law by denying an applicant a reasonable accommodation for his  hearing impairment and then rejecting him from employment because of his  disability, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charged in  a lawsuit it filed today.

According to the EEOC’s suit, Hibbing Taconite  Company initially refused to interview James Edstrom for a position when it  learned that he was hearing-impaired and required an interpreter. After Edstrom filed a discrimination charge with  the EEOC, Hibbing Taconite Company interviewed him, but refused to provide him  with the reasonable accommodations that he needed to take pre-employ­ment tests  and rejected his application based upon his hearing impairment and verbal  limitations.

The EEOC filed the litigation under the Americans  With Disa­bilities Act (ADA) in U.S. District Court for the District of  Minnesota after first trying to reach a voluntary settlement with the  employer. The case is captioned EEOC v. Hibbing Taconite Company, Civ.  No. 09-00729 RHK/RLE.
 
  As part of the suit,  the EEOC is seeking back pay, compensatory and punitive damages, as well as  injunctive relief prohibiting the company from engaging in any employment  practices that discrim­inate on the basis of disability.

“Mr. Edstrom had been  doing the same work for another mining company that he sought to do at Hibbing  Taconite,” said John P. Rowe, district director of the EEOC’s Chicago District,  which includes Minnesota as well as Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin, North Dakota  and South Dakota. “There is no reason to think that he would be  any less successful at Hibbing Taconite in those positions than he was in his  former jobs, where his performance was praised and commended.”

John  Hendrickson, regional attorney of the Chicago District, said, “Employers simply  can’t assume that someone is unable to do the job because he or she doesn’t  hear or speak in the same way as does the average person in the general  population. Mr. Edstrom could do the  job. It was discriminatory to deny him  the position because of his disability.”

In Fiscal Year 2008, the EEOC  received 17,734 disability discrimination charge filings under the ADA, a 10% increase from  the prior year.

The  EEOC enforces federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination. Further information about EEOC is available on  its web site at      www.eeoc.gov.