EEOC Sues Voyant Beauty for Disability Discrimination

CHICAGO – Voyant Beauty, LLC violated the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) when it fired a production line worker because she is deaf, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charged in a lawsuit filed today.  

The EEOC’s suit alleges that Voyant terminated the employee on her first day of work at its facility in Countryside, Illinois, upon learning she is deaf, even though she was qualified for the job and could have performed its essential functions with or without accommodation. Voyant made an unfounded assumption that a deaf individual could not perform the job safely, the EEOC said.

Such alleged conduct violates the ADA. The EEOC filed suit after first attempting to reach a pre-litigation settlement through its conciliation process. The case, EEOC v. Voyant Beauty, LLC, Civil Action No. 1:23-cv-014023, was filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. The government’s litigation effort will be led by Senior Trial Attorney Jeanne Szromba and Assistant Regional Attorney Justin Mulaire.

“Denying employment opportunities to a qualified individual on the basis of their disability without any valid reason is illegal,” said Gregory Gochanour, EEOC’s regional attorney in Chicago.

Acting Chicago District Director Diane Smason said, “Employers cannot simply rely on unfounded stereotypes about people with disabilities when making employment decisions.”

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

The EEOC’s Chicago District Office is responsible for processing charges of discrimin­ation, administrative enforcement and the conduct of agency litigation in Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa and North and South Dakota, with Area Offices in Milwaukee and Minneapolis.

The EEOC advances opportunity in the workplace by enforcing federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination. More information is available at www.eeoc.gov.  Stay connected with the latest EEOC news by subscribing to our email updates.