The
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and Arizona Center for
Disability Law (ACDL)
announced on September 1, 2004 they settled a federal lawsuit for monetary and other
relief under the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) against Aztec
Inn Properties, LLC., an Arizona Corporation, doing business as Clarion Hotel -
Randolph Park and HSL Properties Financial Corporation, an Arizona Corporation
(Clarion), on behalf of former housekeepers who were discriminated against on
the basis of their disability. The
lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona in Tucson,
alleged that Clarion discriminated and retaliated against Steve Garcia, Mary
Ann Kluck, David Laborin, Cristina Gutierrez-Walter and Juan Rivera, because of
their developmental disabilities, which include mental retardation and Down’s
Syndrome. Specifically, the lawsuit alleged that a crew of about five
developmentally disabled workers satisfactorily performed housekeeping services
for the hotel under the supervision of a job coach for several years. Then the hotel hired a new executive
housekeeper who did not wish to work with people with mental retardation. The crew of housekeepers and their job
coach stated that the hotel then began reassigning them to different work
locations than they were usually assigned to, segregating them from the rest of
the housekeeping staff for lunch breaks, excluding them from staff meetings and
altering the tip practices and payment, and denied them reasonable
accommodations. In addition, the
lawsuit further alleged that the hotel terminated the contract with the job
coaching agency and workers in retaliation when a representative for the
workers wrote a letter to the hotel asking them to look into and correct these
unfair employment practices.
The
Consent Decree, signed by District Court Judge Raner C. Collins on August 30
provides that Clarion pay fifty thousand dollars, ($50,000.00) in compensatory damages
to the five crew members and $13,500.00 to ACDL for attorney fees. In addition, the Decree provides that
Clarion will enter into another contract to utilize a crew of developmentally
disabled workers, under certain conditions. The Decree further provides that Clarion will post a notice,
provide training to its employees on disability discrimination and retaliation,
designate an employee to be responsible for addressing any claims of
discrimination, and develop a disability anti-retaliation policy.
View the entire Consent
Decree (PDF
only)