Woman gets $100,000 from former employer that allegedly told her to stop taking her ADHD medication and then made her take a drug test

• A car dealership will pay a woman $100,000 to settle a lawsuit alleging disability discrimination.
• A manager had told the woman to stop taking her prescribed ADHD medication and said she seemed “unfocused” when she stopped, the lawsuit says.
• The woman was allegedly ordered to take a drug test but was fired before it ultimately came back negative.

A woman in Louisiana will get $100,000 from her former employer after the company allegedly told her to stop taking her medication. 

Honda of Covington in eastern Louisiana agreed to pay the sum to settle a lawsuit brought by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that alleged disability discrimination.

The woman was hired at the car dealership as a sales representative in August 2016, according to the EEOC’s complaint. She disclosed on a hiring form at the time that she had ADHD and was taking prescription Adderall for it.

The next month, her husband got in an accident requiring hospitalization. A few days later, a manager at the dealership told the woman she looked “emotional” and said to stop taking her ADHD medication.

Based on these remarks, the woman believed the manager “disapproved of her medication” and feared she’d lose her job if she kept taking it, the complaint says. She subsequently decided to skip her medication on days she was scheduled for a full shift.

On one such day, the manager told the woman she was “acting weird, off, and unfocused” and asked if she’d taken medication, the complaint says. She said she hadn’t and that was the reason she was out of character. The manager then ordered her to take a test for illegal drug use and said she couldn’t return to work until she received the results, the complaint said.

The test initially came back with a “presumptive positive” for amphetamines, but a medical review officer later clarified the final result was negative after verifying the woman’s prescription caused the presence of amphetamines.

The woman was fired for having a positive result before the medical review officer declared it was ultimately negative, the complaint says. On an internal form, the manager explained the termination by writing, “Employee appeared impaired 10/11. Sent for drug test. Results not resolved by 10/14.” The woman said the manager never said poor performance was a cause for her termination.

Neither the dealership nor its attorney could immediately be reached for comment on Saturday. It is unclear if the manager is still with the company.

Besides the $100,000 sum for back pay and damages, the dealership agreed to “conduct training, revise policies, provide regular reports to the EEOC, and post a notice that affirms its obligations under the ADA and states that employees can report violations to the EEOC,” according to a press release from the agency.