(Schneider International)
BALTIMORE (WTAQ-WLUK) — A Green Bay headquartered trucking company is being sued for disability discrimination after allegedly withdrawing a job offer to an applicant in Baltimore when learning she needed a service dog.
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charged Schneider National, Inc. in a federal lawsuit Thursday.
According to the lawsuit, Schneider National extended a conditional offer of employment to a qualified job candidate in the company’s Baltimore region in September 2023. The next day, after learning that she had post-traumatic stress disorder and needed her service dog, the company withdrew her job offer pending further review.
In response to Schneider’s request for additional information, the woman disclosed that her dog was certified as a service animal, trained to alleviate and prevent symptoms of PTSD, and had successfully accompanied her in the truck while she trained and obtained her Class A commercial driver’s license.
Schneider refused to allow her to drive with her service dog as an accommodation, the EEOC’s suit alleged.
“Under federal disability law, employers are required to reasonably accommodate workers with disabilities, absent an undue hardship,” said Debra Lawrence, regional attorney for the EEOC’s Philadelphia District Office. “An employer cannot sidestep these obligations by refusing to employ a qualified individual because they need reasonable accommodations.”
The alleged conduct violated the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which prohibits employers from denying employment to qualified individuals on the basis of disability or based on their need for reasonable accommodations. The EEOC filed suit (EEOC v. Schneider National, Inc., Case No. 1:26-cv-00905-JMC) in U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland after first attempting to reach a pre-litigation settlement through its administrative conciliation process.
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