The city of St. Paul, Minnesota, settled a discrimination lawsuit brought by a firefighter over health-related issues for $528,432. According to the St. Paul Pioneer Press (http://bit.ly/sWaNQS), it was the second-largest employment lawsuit payout in the city’s history.
Eldredge, who hasn’t fought a fire in about seven years because of diminished eyesight, sued the city over disability discrimination, citing his forced “light duty,” multiple termination notices, and the city’s “refusal to provide reasonable accommodations” of his sight problems. The city approved the settlement Wednesday afternoon.
Of the settlement, $300,000 will go toward attorney fees. Eldredge also will work as the department’s health and wellness coordinator, a position he will hold until he retires in 2013.
The legal back-and-forth between the city and Eldredge, who joined the department in 1994 as a firefighter and EMT, began in 2004 after a vision examination during a routine medical screening showed a measurement of 20/200 in his right eye and 20/100 in his left.
Two years earlier, he had been diagnosed with a form of macular degeneration, later identified as Stargardt’s disease. The disease caused a blind spot in the center of his field of vision.
As a result, Eldredge is unable to read small print without magnification, has some driver’s license restrictions and experiences central-field-of-vision distortion, the lawsuit said. Despite his diagnosis, he successfully performed his duties, the lawsuit said.
After the test, Eldredge learned he was being terminated, the lawsuit said. When he asserted his rights to a veterans preference hearing under the Americans with Disabilities Act, he was no longer terminated.He was later placed on light duty, which resulted in less pay, loss of overtime hours and decreased retirement entitlement, according to the lawsuit said.
The legal dispute continued with the city for years, eventually winding up in the Minnesota Supreme Court.
Read more at http://bit.ly/sWaNQS.
