There's a lot of justifiable reasons to criticize U.S. federal employment law, but sometimes they do get it right:
A federal judge has ordered Walmart to immediately rehire a woman with Down syndrome and give her more than $50,000 in back pay after she prevailed in a disability discrimination lawsuit related to her firing from a Wisconsin store...
Walmart told CNBC on Wednesday that it would comply with the order to give [employee Marlo] Spaeth her job back.
But a spokesman said the company has not decided whether to appeal the ruling on back pay, along with $300,000 in jury damages.
Gonna go ahead and give this ruling the ol' Chuck Norris Thumb System Seal of Approval:
Spaeth's saga at Walmart would seem to be a slam-dunk for U.S. disability law:
Her work hours were changed in 2014 when the store began using a computerized scheduling system designed to match staffing levels with customer traffic, court records show.
Spaeth struggled to adapt to the new hours and worried that she would miss the bus or her dinnertime. That led to her sometimes leaving early.
Spaeth and her sister, Amy Jo Stevenson, repeatedly asked for her schedule to be changed back.
But Walmart refused, and ultimately fired Spaeth.
I mean, look, running a business can be difficult. Making accommodations for employees can sometimes be a headache. No arguments there.
But...Walmart is the largest private employer in the country. Um, sorry, it's the largest private employer in the world. I'm sure that a couple of mid-level shift managers at the Manitowoc, Wisconsin location could have put their heads together and figured out how to craft a workable schedule for a loyal 15-year employee.
But they didn't, and now they have to pay up. Good for Spaeth.
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