$200,000 FOR DEAF WOMAN WRONGFULLY FIRED BY SSA
After a long fight at both the EEOC and federal court, SSA finally decided to settle the case of Alli Friends, paying her $200,000.
Alli, who is profoundly deaf, had been hired as a claims representative in one of the D.C. district offices. Because of delays in providing an ASL interpreter, she was unable to get the same training that all other new claims reps get. Although she had hoped that she’d be able to successfully rely on lipreading to conduct claimant interviews, that turned out not to be possible.
Alli asked, first of all, for proper training. Secondly, she asked that she be either given a sign language interpreter so that she could properly conduct claimant interviews or that she be reassigned. The agency refused her requests and, instead, fired her because of her failure to competently conduct claimant interviews.
After a bit of prodding from the U.S. district court judge to whom the case was assigned, the agency agreed to settle the case for $200,000 plus attorney fees.
Our President
Cynthia Ennis
Cynthia Ennis has served as Executive Vice President of Local 1923 for over 20 years and was elected as President in August, 2003. Cynthia is fervently committed and dedicated to the labor movement.
In her position, Cynthia will move full speed ahead and address some of the serious challenges currently facing the federal workforce. Issues such as personnel reform, contracting out, pay parity, the stripping away of bargaining rights, and continually rising health insurance premiums are just to name a few. Cynthia intends on tackling these and many other issues in order to provide federal employees the rights they so richly deserve.