Walmart Fails to Reverse Ruling for Deaf Worker Denied Job Coach

Walmart Stores Inc. failed to convince the Seventh Circuit Thursday to reverse judgment or grant it a new trial in a case where it was found to have violated disability bias law by questioning a disabled cart pusher’s need for a job coach.

A jury in October 2019 awarded the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission $5.2 million on behalf of Paul Reina, a deaf and visually impaired cart pusher, after finding Reina was denied an accommodation and fired because of his disabilities.

Reina, an employee at a store in Beloit, Wis., since January 1999, had used a job coach who ...