EEOC Sues American Multi-Cinema for Disability Discrimination

BALTIMORE – American Multi-Cinema (AMC), a nationwide movie theatre chain, violated federal law when it forced an employee with a disability to leave his job, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charged in a lawsuit filed today.

According to the lawsuit, AMC, at its Owings Mills, Maryland location, violated federal law when it forced a 22-year employee with cerebral palsy to quit around September 2023 after it deprived him of reasonable accommodations which would have enabled him to better perform his job and then greatly reduced his hours. The theater refused to provide a ticket scanner with a strap and side button which would have been easier for him to use, and a printed list of the movies and their corresponding theaters in large font, according to the suit.

“This employee had worked for the company for 22 years and requested very simple accommodations to continue as an effective employee,” said EEOC Regional Attorney Debra Lawrence. “The EEOC will never relent in its fight to ensure that qualified employees with disabilities have an opportunity to be productive contributors.”

The theater’s alleged conduct violated the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which requires employers to make reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities, absent undue hardship, and prohibits discrimination based on disability. The EEOC filed suit (EEOC v. American Multi-Cinema Inc., Case No. 25-cv-03003-CJC) 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 EEOC’s Baltimore Field Office is one of four offices in the EEOC Philadelphia District Office, which has jurisdiction over Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, West Virginia, and parts of New Jersey, and Ohio. Attorneys in the EEOC Philadelphia District Office also prosecute discrimination cases in Washington, D.C. and parts 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 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.