PepsiCo, a Delaware company operating a facility in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, agreed to pay $270,000 and work with an accessibility consultant to settle a disability discrimination lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the federal agency announced April 15.
According to the EEOC’s suit, PepsiCo hired a blind employee as a customer care advocate for its Winston-Salem call center in April 2022. The employee requested a reasonable accommodation for his disability to allow him to access information in company computers needed to perform his job. When the company concluded it could not provide an accommodation, it fired him. The suit also alleged that PepsiCo rejected an offer by the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Resources to assist PepsiCo with identifying accessibility solutions for the employee.
Under the two-year consent decree resolving the lawsuit, PepsiCo is enjoined from failing to provide a reasonable accommodation as required by the ADA; must work with an expert to ensure that certain software applications at the Winston-Salem facility will be accessible to individuals with visual disabilities; make periodic progress reports to the EEOC; maintain and distribute an anti-discrimination policy addressing reasonable accommodations; provide relevant training at its Winston-Salem facility; and post a notice of rights and obligations under the ADA.
“The EEOC is pleased that PepsiCo is committed to working with a consultant to make its computer systems accessible to individuals with visual disabilities,” said Melinda C. Dugas, regional attorney for the EEOC’s Charlotte District Office. “Accommodations specialists can be a valuable resource to help employers to meet their obligations under the ADA.”
As alleged, the conduct would violate the Americans with Disabilities Act, which protects employees and job seekers from disability discrimination. The EEOC filed suit (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. PepsiCo Beverage Sales, LLC d/b/a PepsiCo Beverage Company Case No. 1:24-cv-00456) in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina after first attempting to reach a pre-litigation settlement through its administrative conciliation process.
