A woman in Louisiana will get $100,000 from her former employer after they told her to stop taking her medication.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission brought a lawsuit against Honda of Covington, Louisiana, for alleged disability discrimination.
The woman was hired as a sales representative at the car dealership. She disclosed on a hiring form that she was taking Adderall for her attention deficit disorder.
Her husband got in an accident and had to be hospitalized. A manager at the dealership told a woman to stop taking her medication because she looked emotional.
The woman believed the manager disapproved of her medication and that she would lose her job if she continued to take it. She decided to not take her medication on days she was scheduled to work.
The woman was told by the manager that she was acting weird, off, and unfocused and asked if she had taken medication. She was out of character because she said she hadn't. The manager ordered her to take a drug test and told her she couldn't return to work until she received the results.
The test initially came back with a presumptive positive for amphetamines, but a medical review officer later explained the final result was negative after the woman's prescription caused the presence of amphetamines.
The woman was fired for having a positive result before the medical review officer declared it negative, according to the complaint. The manager wrote on the internal form that the employee appeared impaired. Someone is going for a drug test. The results were not resolved by 10/14. The woman said the manager never said poor performance was a reason for her firing.
Neither the dealership nor its attorney could be reached on Saturday. The company's manager is not certain if he is still with the company.
The dealership agreed to pay back pay and damages, as well as conduct training, revise policies, and post a notice stating that employees can report violations to the EEOC.
