Discuss: Employer Sued for Firing Employee with Eye Condition

[cheryl]

Employer Sued for Firing Employee with Eye Condition - BLR
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is suing Atlanta-based United Parcel Service (UPS), claiming that it fired an employee working in its Horsham facility because the employee had a degenerative eye condition.

[scratch]

My wife had these same eye disease, RP or Retinitis Pigmentosis. It is a genetic disease that usually shows up in the victim's 30's, beginning with a loss of night vision and gradual loss of side vision. A person becomes legally blind when their side vision gets down to a field of thirty degrees, at that point they would be forced to give up their Driver's License. Depending on what stage they are in, the person can see straight ahead, they are losing their peripheal sight. This article doesn't mention how far along the employee is as far as vision loss is. There is currently no cure for this, research is along the lines of gene therapy and chip implants into the optic nerve.

A few years back, we used to do volunteer work for the Atlanta Chapter of The Foundation Fighting Blindness. I applied for a grant from the UPS Foundation and am grateful that this money was used in our fund raising efforts. Thanks UPS

[over9five]

While I agree it was probably becoming unsafe for him to do his job, couldn't they have worked with this 17 year employee instead of just firing him?