State Department Settles Multimillion Dollar Disability Discrimination Suit

The U.S. Department of State is set to pay millions to plaintiffs in a class action suit alleging the department unfairly denied individuals with disabilities from obtaining Foreign Service jobs.

Initially filed more than 16 years ago, the longstanding suit was led by Doering Meyer, a woman with multiple sclerosis (MS) who qualified for a Foreign Service Officer position after “a rigorous screening process,” according to a statement from Oakland, Calif.-based Bryan Schwartz, who represented the plaintiffs in the case.

Meyer, however, was denied employment based solely on the basis of her medical condition, according to Schwartz’s 2010 statement, issued upon the suit’s certification as a class action. She eventually joined the Foreign Service, but only after obtaining a waiver.

As part of the settlement, the State Department has agreed to pay $37.5 million to more than 230 individuals whose employment with the Department was either delayed or denied as a result of their inability to obtain the same type of medical clearance that Meyer ultimately received. The Department will also extend conditional job offers to the individuals included in the class-action suit. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is set to hold a March 15 hearing to finalize the terms of the settlement agreement.

In a memo to its diplomatic and consular posts, the State Department noted that it chose to settle the suit in a way that “provides benefits and certainty to the class and to the department now, instead of prolonging the disagreement.”

Committed to Inclusion

A separate Department statement described the settlement as “an important step forward” in the Department’s efforts to create a truly diverse workforce.

Indeed, last fall the Department announced its five-year diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility plan, designed to help the organization build “a diplomatic corps that fully represents America in all its talent and in all its diversity with the skills to contend with 21^st century challenges,” according to Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken.

The terms of the recent class-action settlement are commensurate with the Department’s commitment to inclusive workforce policies and practices, according to the agency, which says it is continuing to examine areas in which policies can be designed or updated to reflect Secretary Blinken’s modernization agenda.

In an email interview with Federal News Network, Meyer said the settlement reinforces The Rehabilitation Act of 1973’s requirement that agencies like the State Department must assess whether a particular job with or without an accommodation.

“To be told I could not have a job because of a ‘diagnosed neurological condition’ after my neurologist had said, in writing, that I was worldwide available, was demoralizing and humiliating,” Meyer told Federal News Network. “The law required employers to consider whether a person could do a job with reasonable accommodation, and yet I was outright rejected because of a diagnosis; a label.”

Before this suit was filed, “even those with stable conditions were not allowed jobs as Foreign Service officers or specialists,” Meyer continued. “Hopefully, those days are in the past, and the Foreign Service will now be open to anyone with the skills and desire to do the job.”