ARIZONA STATE COMPENSATION FUND AGREES TO PAY $150,000
TO SETTLE AMERICANS WITH DISABILITY ACT CASE

WASHINGTON, D.C. - - The Department of Justice today announced that the Arizona State Compensation Fund has agreed to pay $150,000 in damages and has agreed to take steps to ensure compliance with the employment provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

Today's settlement resolves a disability discrimination charge filed by a former employee of the Arizona State Compensation Fund who alleged that the Fund unlawfully terminated her after failing to grant her the reasonable accommodation of additional leave without pay, which she needed in order to stabilize her disability of severe depression. While the State Fund denied any discrimination, it cooperated with the Department of Justice's investigation and agreed to settle the matter.

"Granting unpaid leave to an employee with a disability -- so that he or she can eventually return to work -- is, in many instances, a reasonable accommodation under the ADA," said Ralph F. Boyd, Jr., Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights. "The determination of whether a particular accommodation is reasonable must be made on a case by case basis, by use of an interactive process that includes communication between the employee and employer."

The former employee, who worked with the State Fund for a number of years while managing her depression, took three months of unpaid leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), to recover from a severe bout of depression. The employee stayed in communication with her supervisor while on leave and toward the end of that leave, advised her supervisor that she planned to return to work soon and was working with her doctor.

The Department of Justice alleges that, shortly after the expiration of her FMLA leave, the Fund terminated the employee instead of granting her a brief additional period of unpaid leave as a reasonable accommodation as required by the ADA. The employee's termination came just one day after she submitted to her employer a release from her physician clearing her to return to work the following week.

Under the settlement agreement between the parties, the State Fund will:

• abide by all of the requirements of the ADA;
• not discriminate in violation of the ADA against a qualified individual with a disability, including an individual with a mental impairment such as depression;
• not automatically terminate a ‘qualified individual with a disability' at the expiration of leave taken under the Family Medical Leave Act;
• consider, on a case by case basis, whether it may reasonably accommodate a qualified individual with a disability by providing leave without pay or another form of reasonable accommodation; and
• continue to train supervisory employees about the ADA.

The United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's regional office in Phoenix investigated the employee's ADA charge, found reasonable cause to believe that the State Fund had violated the ADA, attempted to conciliate the matter, and then referred it to the Department of Justice.

Additional information about the ADA can be found by calling the Department's toll-free information line at (800) 514-0301, (800) 514-0383 (TDD) or the Department of Justice website at www.usdoj.gov/crt/ada/adahom1.

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