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Morristown NJ Man Suing Wal-Mart For Bias
Job applicant claims Cedar Knolls
store disregarded disability
By Abbott Koloff, Daily Record
A Morristown man is suing Wal-Mart,
saying the company discriminated against him by failing to accommodate his
disability when he applied for a job.
The lawsuit, filed in Morris County
Superior Court Monday, claims Jason Walker, of Morristown, was told he would not
be given an opportunity to work at Wal-Mart in Cedar Knolls after he was unable
to take a drug test. The suit claims Walker has kidney problems, is on dialysis,
and was unable to take a standard drug test that requires a urine sample.
A store representative asked for a
note from Walker's doctor, the suit says. When Walker said he could not get a
note until the next regular working day, according to the suit, he was told he
would not be hired and to reapply in about a year.
The suit claims that Wal-Mart violated
New Jersey's Law Against Discrimination.
"The law requires accommodation not
only for employees, but applicants," John McDonnell, a Morristown attorney
representing Walker, said Monday.
Tom Williams, a Wal-Mart spokesman,
said he could not comment on the case until corporate attorneys review it.
Attorneys have not yet had time to do that, he said. He also would not discuss
Wal-Mart's policies regarding disabled employees and applicants until attorneys
examine the lawsuit.
McDonnell described his client as a
young man, in his early 20's, whose medical condition does not allow him to take
a standard drug test. He said the law requires companies to provide alternative
methods of giving such tests as long as there's "no undue hardship on the
employer."
"They can't just not hire you because
of a disability," he said.
The suit asks for compensatory and
punitive damages, including pay Walker might have received had he been hired.
Walker, according to the suit, applied
for job as a sales associate last October and was sent to a medical testing
facility for a drug and alcohol test.
"Upon arrival, plaintiff was informed
that he had to provide a urine sample as part of the screening process," the
suit says, "Plaintiff told the nurse at the facility that his medical condition
precluded him from urinating."
A Wal-Mart representative later
advised Walker to get a doctor's note and bring it to the store the following
day, a Friday. Walker told the representative that he couldn't get a note until
Monday, according to the suit.
"Upon hearing this, defendant's
representative advised plaintiff that plaintiff could not be hired and that
plaintiff could reapply in a year," the suit said.
The suit claims that a physician did
fax a letter to the store, although it's not clear when that happened. McDonnell
said in court papers that the store failed to hire his client because of his
disability "by failing to allow plaintiff to utilize alternative testing
procedures during the drug/alcohol screening process."
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