EEOC Sues Schneider National for Disability Discrimination

BALTIMORE – Schneider National, Inc., a Green Bay, Wisconsin-headquartered nationwide transportation and logistics company, violated federal law when it refused to reasonably accommodate an applicant with PTSD by denying her request to bring her service dog to work, and withdrawing its job offer because of her disability, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charged in a lawsuit announced today.

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.

For more information on disability discrimination, please visit https://www.eeoc.gov/disability-discrimination.

The lawsuit was initiated by the EEOC’s Baltimore Field Office, one of four local offices of the agency’s Philadelphia District Office. The Philadelphia District Office has jurisdiction over Maryland, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Delaware, and portions of New Jersey and Ohio. Attorneys in the Philadelphia District Office also prosecute discrimination cases in Washington, D.C. and portions of Virginia.

The EEOC is the sole federal agency authorized to investigate and litigate against businesses and other private sector employers for violations of federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination. For public sector employers, the EEOC shares jurisdiction with the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division. The EEOC also is responsible for coordinating the federal government’s employment antidiscrimination effort. More information about the EEOC is available at www.eeoc.gov.