A longtime self-checkout attendant at a Houston-area Kroger allegedly did her job for years with a simple, visible accommodation: a walker that helped her keep moving while managing neuropathy. Then new management arrived, the EEOC says, and the thing that kept her working was suddenly treated like a problem instead of a solution.
In a federal lawsuit announced in the agency’s press release, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission alleges Kroger Texas L.P. – Houston Division violated the Americans with Disabilities Act after taking away the worker’s established accommodation, pushing her toward leave she didn’t want, and ultimately firing her.
For three years, the accommodation wasn’t a controversy
According to the EEOC, the employee worked as a self-service checkout attendant at Kroger store #300 in Houston’s Clear Lake/NASA area. She had neuropathy, a condition that limited her ability to walk and move, and caused her feet to go numb if she had to stand for too long.
The workaround wasn’t complicated. The EEOC says she successfully performed the job for three years using a walker, treating it as a reasonable accommodation that let her stay on the floor and keep working…