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Maverik, Inc., doing business as Maverik Country Stores,  a billion-dollar company operating approximately 200 gas station/convenience  stores in 10 western states, will pay $115,000 and furnish other relief  to settle a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission  (EEOC).  The lawsuit, filed on Sept. 30, 2010 in federal court in Cheyenne, Wyo.,  charged Maverik with violating the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) by allegedly  failing to accommodate and then firing an HIV-positive bakery clerk.

According to public filings in the lawsuit, EEOC v. Maverik, Inc., d/b/a Maverik  Country Stores, 10-cv-0212-F, Maverik learned of the employee’s HIV status  when it was disclosed in a workers’ compensation proceeding. The employee, who had worked for the company  over three years, was fired two weeks later because of an alleged fear that he  should not be working with food. The EEOC  also said that Maverik failed to make reasonable accommodations for the  employee.

In addition to the monetary settlement, the three-year consent  decree resolving the lawsuit prohibits Maverik from further discriminating  based on disability and requires the company to review its written ADA  non-discrimination policy. The decree  also requires Maverik to provide ADA training to  its Wyoming  work force and to higher-level supervisors and managers company-wide. Maverik is required to post an ADA notice in each of its Wyoming locations and to make periodic  reports to the EEOC.

“The ADA prohibits employers from terminating employees because of  irrational fears about disabilities,” said EEOC Regional Attorney Mary  Jo O’Neill of the Phoenix District, which includes Wyoming.  “HIV/AIDS has been recognized as a disability under the ADA, and there is nothing about having HIV  which should preclude an individual from working with food.”