By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
Princeton Healthcare System agreed to pay $1.35 million and take other steps to end a civil lawsuit the federal government filed four years ago claiming the operator of the University Hospital of Princeton had an unlawful employee leave policy.
The federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced Monday the terms of the settlement of the disability discrimination lawsuit that it had filed after being unable to resolve the case.
In a press release, the EEOC said Princeton HealthCare’s leave policy had violated the federal Americans with Disabilities Act. Twenty-three employees were fired for exceeding the amount of time that Princeton HealthCare had allowed them to take.
The policy, changed the same year the lawsuit was brought, meant that employees eligible for leave under the Family Medical Leave Act were fired after exceeding the permitted 12 weeks. The hospital’s leave policy "tracked the requirements" of FMLA, but the government said that did not matter, because the policy violated the ADA.
Employees not eligible for FMLA were let go "after being absent for a short time," the EEOC said in the release.
"Policies that limit the amount of leave, even if they comply with other laws, violate the ADA when they call for the automatic firing of employees with a disability after they reach a rigid, inflexible leave limit," EEOC attorney Robert D. Rose said in the release.
The EEOC said it sued after being unable to settle the case. Those 23 former employees will share in the $1.35 million, the government said.
"Although the hospital disagrees that the prior policy violated the ADA and challenged the claims, the hospital has agreed to resolve those matters in order to avoid the very high cost and disruption of operations caused by the ongoing litigation," Princeton HealthCare System said in a statement Monday. "The hospital has always been and remains fully committed to a workplace free of any discrimination."
As part of the settlement, Princeton HealthCare cannot cap "the amount of leave time that an employee covered by the ADA may take," the EEOC said in the release. They also cannot require employees to certify they are fit to return to work without restrictions.