“It is important for employers to know that they cannot fire an employee in an attempt to avoid increased insurance costs resulting from the employee’s physical or mental impairment,” Rudy Sustaita, regional attorney for the EEOC’s Houston District Office, said in a statement. An employer may not take into account a person’s disability when making decisions about discharge, the EEOC has explained.
In documentation on questions regarding deafness and hearing impairments, the EEOC noted that an employer may fire a hearing-impaired worker for safety reasons when the worker poses a significant risk of substantial self-harm or harm to others that cannot be eliminated or reduced through reasonable accommodation.
