EEOC Sues ALM Freight and LMDmax for Disability Discrimination

DETROIT – ALM Freight, LLC, an Amazon Delivery Service Partner company, and LMDmax Corp., violated federal law at ALM’s Pontiac, Michigan facility by failing to provide a reasonable accommodation for a deaf job applicant after she requested an American Sign Language (ASL) interpreter for her first-day orientation, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charged in a lawsuit announced today.

According to the EEOC’s lawsuit, the applicant applied for and was offered a driver position with ALM in November 2022. She accepted the position and began communicating with LMDmax, ALM’s employment agency, to complete onboarding paperwork and a required background check. After completing the background check, she requested an ASL interpreter for her first-day orientation. LMDmax responded with a text message advising the applicant that ALM does not provide interpreters and ALM would not proceed with her hiring. ALM Freight knew of the request and approved LMDmax’s decision, the suit said.

“An employer cannot rescind a job offer because it learned a qualified candidate has a disability and needs an accommodation for orientation,” said Kenneth Bird, regional attorney for the EEOC’s Indianapolis District Office. “Declining to hire someone to avoid providing a reasonable accommodation for that person’s disability is unlawful discrimination.”

Such alleged conduct violates the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which prohibits discrimination based on disability, and requires employers to make reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals, unless doing so would cause an undue hardship. The EEOC filed suit (EEOC v. ALM Freight, LLC, and LMDmax Corp., Case No. 2:25-cv-13655) in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan after first attempting to reach a pre-litigation settlement through its administrative conciliation process.

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

The EEOC’s Indianapolis District Office oversees Indiana, Michigan, Kentucky and parts of Ohio.

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 is responsible for investigating charges against state and local government employers before referring them to DOJ for potential litigation. 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. Stay connected with the latest EEOC news by subscribing to our email updates.