EEOC Question

cowboy · June 2005

My neice was recently fired from a nursing position on false pretenses. Her former employer has less than 15 employees. Can she take this to the EEOC? I should mention she is bipolar.

LivindonSouth · June 2005

You don't have to belong to a certain size workforce to file a charge with the EEOC for illegal discrimination. Why 'shoud you' mention that she is bipolar? Is she perhaps also left handed?

Gillian3 · June 2005

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 06-20-05 AT 11:51AM (CST)[/font][br][br]Title V11 of the Civil Rights Act covers employers with 15 or more employees. While an occasional EEOC intake officer might accept an employee claim of discrimination from an employer with less than 15 employees, the employer challenge that they are not covered would probably prevail and the complaint dismissed. Assuming that bi-polar disorder is a covered disability under ADA, the employer coverage is also 15 or more employees.

LivindonSouth · June 2005

As I mentioned, a charge can be 'filed' regardless. Whether or not it's ultimately acted upon is another matter. In this jurisdiction, the office will take the charge and run with it, attempting to muscle the employer, regardless of size. I still wonder what might be the relevance of the bipolar disorder.

safety · June 2005

If this is in TX do a google search for Texas Human Rights...

cowboy · June 2005

Thanks for your comments. We are in Texas and will look up Texas Human Rights. The bipolar was mentioned as an ADA possibility.

LivindonSouth · June 2005

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 06-20-05 AT 06:06PM (CST)[/font][br][br]Good point Safety. Many states do have redundant, parallel systems similar to (but usually preceeding) the formal EEOC system. Thank goodness mine does not.

(edit) And to the questioner; a disability will rarely if ever serve as an adequate defense for breaking the law or violating employer policy. Interesting thought though.

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