EEOC Sues Carlstar for Disability Discrimination

ST. LOUIS – The Carlstar Group LLC, a Tennessee-based manufacturer of specialty tires and wheels, violated federal law when it discriminated against employees at its facilities in Clinton and Jackson, Tennessee, and Aiken, South Carolina, because the workers lawfully used certain prescription medications to treat their disabilities, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charged in a lawsuit filed today.

According to the EEOC’s suit, since at least January 2020, Carlstar has denied opportunities to manufacturing employees when the company learned that those employees were lawfully taking certain prescription medications, including narcotics and opioids, for the treatment of disabilities, even after the employees were medically cleared to perform their job duties. The suit also alleges that Carlstar failed to consider or provide the workers with reasonable accommodations to the company’s drug testing and substance abuse policy that would enable employees to work while lawfully using their prescribed medications.

Such alleged conduct violates the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which prohibits dis- crimination due to disability. The EEOC’s suit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. The Carlstar Group LLC, Civil Action No. 3:25-cv-00575), seeks monetary relief for workers harmed by Carlstar’s alleged unlawful conduct and an order prohibiting future discriminatory conduct against disabled individuals.

“The Americans with Disabilities Act protects workers from discrimination based on disability, including discrimination based on their lawful use of prescription medications to treat their disability,” said Andrea G. Baran, regional attorney for the EEOC’s St. Louis District Office. “The ADA requires employers to consider each worker as an individual and not use blanket policies to exclude qualified workers who are able to perform their duties safely and effectively.”

David S. Davis, director of the EEOC’s St. Louis District office, said, “The EEOC is committed to protecting civil rights and ensuring individual, merit-based employment opportunities for American workers, including qualified workers with disabilities.”

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

The EEOC’s St. Louis District Office is responsible for addressing discrimination charges and conducting agency litigation in Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Nebraska and a portion of southern Illinois.

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.