1st Franklin Financial Corporation, a consumer lender with more than 370 branches throughout the southeastern United States, violated federal law by discriminating against a class of employees when it denied them reasonable accommodations and then fired them because of their disabilities, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charged in a lawsuit it recently filed.
According to the EEOC’s lawsuit, 1st Franklin has denied reasonable accommodations to its employees with disabilities since 2022 and offered no alternative accommodations, including when its employees requested leave as an accommodation. The EEOC’s complaint charged that a former customer service representative had multiple medical conditions contributing to heart attacks requiring hospitalization. He requested a short leave of absence until he expected to be released from the hospital, but the company denied the request and terminated him.
Such alleged conduct violated the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which requires reasonable accommodation of disabilities and prohibits employers from discharging an employee because of their disability or because they engaged in protected activity. The EEOC filed suit (Civil Action No. 1:25-cv-03632-TWT-CCB) in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, Atlanta Division, after first attempting to reach a pre-litigation settlement via its conciliation process. The EEOC is seeking back pay, front pay, compensatory damages and punitive damages for the defendants’ former employees, as well as injunctive relief to prevent future discrimination.
“The ADA requires that employers accommodate disabled employees, which includes granting a leave of absence even if an employer’s policies do not permit such leave,” said Marcus G. Keegan, regional attorney for the EEOC’s Atlanta District Office. “In this case, 1st Franklin routinely denied reasonable accommodations to its employees, typically citing its own leave policies or other federal laws as the reason.”
Darrell Graham, district director of the Atlanta office, said, “The ADA requires providing a reasonable accommodation unless it would cause an undue hardship to the employer. Here, 1st Franklin ignored federal law and summarily denied accommodations without considering whether or how it would affect its business.”
