Dollar General to Pay $1M in Disability-Discrimination Lawsuit

National retailer Dollar General has agreed to pay $1 million to settle a lawsuit first filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) in 2017, which alleges the company's hiring process violated the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Genetic Information Non-Discrimination Act (GINA). 

According to the lawsuit, after making job offers to work at its distribution center in Bessemer, Ala., Dollar General required applicants to pass a pre-employment medical exam during which they had to divulge past and present medical conditions of family members such as cancer, diabetes and heart disease. The EEOC also alleged that Dollar General used qualification criteria that screened out qualified individuals with disabilities. For example, Dollar General rescinded job offers to applicants whose blood pressure exceeded 160/100 or who had less than 20/50 vision in one eye, even when those impairments did not prevent the applicants from safely performing the job.

The EEOC filed suit in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama after its Birmingham District Office completed an investigation and first attempted to reach a pre-litigation settlement. The EEOC sued on behalf of 498 applicants who were required to divulge family medical history during the hiring process and on behalf other qualified applicants whose job offers were rescinded based on their so-called impairments.

“Requiring individuals during the hiring process to answer invasive questions about medical conditions of their grandparents, parents or children violates GINA,” said EEOC Birmingham District Director Bradley Anderson. “An employer is prohibited from soliciting this information, regardless of whether the information is used to deny employment.”

Regional Attorney for the EEOC’s Birmingham District Marsha Rucker added, “The ADA protects job applicants from being denied employment because of a disability as long as they can perform the job with or without an accommodation. Employers cannot deny employment solely based on stereotypes about the abilities of individuals with certain impairments.”

Dollar General discontinued its practice of requiring pre-employment medical exams for these warehouse jobs after the lawsuit was filed. 

The company provided the following comment to Progressive Grocer: "Dollar General is committed to providing an inclusive and welcoming employment experience where all employees can bring their authentic selves to work each day. The company is pleased to resolve this matter, which dates back to 2014 and involves a challenged practice we discontinued several years ago."

Besides monetary relief, Dollar General must now review and revise its ADA and GINA policies and distribute them to all individuals involved in the hiring process if they resume requiring medical exams. The retail must also require their medical examiners not to request family medical history; must consider the medical opinion of an applicant’s personal physician; and must inform applicants how to request a reasonable accommodation if needed. Additionally, Dollar General has been ordered to provide annual training to all individuals involved in the hiring process on the ADA and GINA, and how to file a charge of discrimination with the EEOC.

A few weeks ago, Dollar General also agreed to pay $42,500 to settle a pregnancy discrimination lawsuit also filed by EEOC that alleged the retailer fired a sales associate because she was pregnant.

As of Aug. 4, Goodlettsville, Tenn.-based Dollar General operated 19,488 Dollar General, DG Market, DGX and pOpshelf stores across the United States, and Mi Súper Dollar General stores in Mexico. The company is No. 16 on The PG 100, Progressive Grocer’s 2023 list of the top food and consumables retailers in North America.