University settles disability bias lawsuit

ANN ARBOR (AP) — The U.S. Department of Justice says it has settled a lawsuit against the University of Michigan that accused the school of failing to provide proper job reassignment to employees with disabilities.

The Justice Department says the consent decree resolved allegations that the school violated the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The department accused the school of requiring two employees with disabilities to compete for available positions for which they were qualified. One employee was a maintenance
worker with a degenerative back disease.

According to the department, the university also applied a policy that denied reassignment as a reasonable accommodation.

Under the consent decree, the university would pay the employees a total of roughly $215,000 as well as make changes to its policies on reassignments and transfers.