American Airlines Refuses to Provide Reasonable Accommodations to Employees with Disabilities, Class Action Alleges

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A proposed class action alleges American Airlines has discriminated against employees with disabilities by refusing to provide the workers with reasonable accommodations.

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The 15-page lawsuit claims the airline systematically fails to engage in an interactive process regarding what accommodations should be provided to employees with disabilities, or otherwise delays or directly denies requests for reasonable accommodations, and has even terminated employees who have made such requests. In doing so, American Airlines has violated the federal Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the case alleges.

The plaintiff, an American Airlines employee first hired in 2015 as a customer service representative at the airline’s Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas location, says a chronic symptom of her lifetime disability is lymphedema in her legs, which involves swelling due to the build-up of lymph fluid. According to the case, American Airlines “wholly ignored” the woman’s request in 2019 to break its dress code by wearing tennis shoes, forcing her to continue working while her legs swelled in pain.

That year, the woman applied for benefits under the Family Medical Leave Act to assist with her ongoing disability, the case says. Then, in March 2020, American Airlines denied her request and offered her a COVID-19-related furlough instead of termination, the complaint relays.

“Desperate to remain employed,” the plaintiff accepted the furlough until she began working again in April 2021 with “light duty” accommodations, the filing says. After American Airlines placed the plaintiff on a mandatory, involuntary medical leave that summer and refused to continue her light-duty accommodations, the woman requested a transfer to a clerical position where she could perform administrative work as an accommodation for her disability, the suit says.

Not only did American Airlines ignore the plaintiff’s request, but it also informed her in February 2022 that she was subject to termination for “excessive absences,” the filing alleges.

Although the defendant advised the woman later that month that it would consider her physical limitations and attempt to place her on light duty instead of terminating her, it subsequently denied her accommodation request and instructed her to apply for other positions she could perform with restrictions, the lawsuit says.

Between June and December 2022, the plaintiff claims she applied for and was rejected 13 positions until American Airlines finally offered her a role on December 17.

“Upon Information and belief, American Airlines’ treatment is not unique to [the plaintiff],” the suit contends. In fact, the complaint relays, a 2017 lawsuit filed by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission alleged that the airline maintained an unlawful “100% return-to-work policy” that required employees who returned to work following a medical leave and needed reasonable accommodation to find, apply to and compete for other jobs “without regard to reassignment as a reasonable accommodation.”

Although American Airlines has since removed the discriminatory policy from its handbook and employee documents, the defendant continues to enforce the alleged conduct detailed in the suit, which was settled for $9.8 million, the case claims.

Per the complaint, American Airlines’ failure to provide its employees with disabilities with reasonable accommodations, and requirement that these employees compete for accommodating positions, is “malicious” and “done with reckless indifference to their federally protected rights.”

The lawsuit looks to represent any current and former American Airlines employees who have disabilities within the meaning of the ADA, are qualified under the ADA and are subject to or have been adversely affected by the airline’s policies regarding reasonable accommodations.

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