EEOC Sues Wrightway Ready-Mix and Wright Concrete & Construction for Disability Discrimination

Charleston, W.V. – Wrightway Ready-Mix, LLC, and Wright Concrete & Construction, Inc., related concrete-construction companies operating in Delbarton, West Virginia, unlawfully questioned a job applicant about using methadone as part of medication-assisted treatment for opioid addiction and then refused to hire him because of his answer, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charged in a lawsuit announced today.

According to the EEOC’s lawsuit, when a job applicant went to a Wrightway facility in Delbarton to apply and interview for a laborer position, the hiring manager asked him what medications he was currently taking. The job applicant said he was taking methadone; the hiring manager then told the job applicant that Wrightway would not hire him due to a longstanding company policy prohibiting employment of workers who take methadone. When the job applicant then spoke with the onsite head of human resources, she affirmed that Wrightway would not hire him because of its policy of refusing to hire workers who take methadone, according to the suit.

Because of these policies and practices, the EEOC’s lawsuit charged that Wrightway has excluded a class of workers from employment in violation of federal law.

“To observe the federal mandate to provide equal employment opportunities for people with disabilities, employers cannot impose unlawful barriers to entry for workers with records of opioid addiction — including workers who are taking methadone and other medications as part of their recovery,” said EEOC Philadelphia District Office Regional Attorney Debra Lawrence. “The EEOC is committed to protecting workers in addiction recovery from disability discrimination, especially those in labor markets that have been severely impacted by the opioid epidemic.”

The type of conduct alleged in the EEOC’s complaint violates the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which prohibits discrimination against job applicants and employees on the basis of disability. The ADA also prohibits an employer from asking job applicants for information which may reveal the existence, nature or severity of a disability before the employer has made an offer of employment. The ADA further prohibits a covered employer from implementing a qualification standard or other selection criteria to screen out or tend to screen out workers with disabilities unless the qualification standard or other selection criteria are job-related for the position in question and consistent with business necessity.

The EEOC filed suit in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia (U.S. EEOC v. Wrightway Ready-Mix, LLC and Wright Concrete & Construction, Inc., Case No. 2:25-cv-00711) after first attempting to reach a pre-litigation settlement through its administrative conciliation process.

Acting EEOC Philadelphia District Director Karen McDonough said, “All job applicants, whether or not they have disabilities, have a right not to be forced to answer questions which are likely to elicit information about whether they have disabilities before they receive job offers. The EEOC takes seriously its role in enforcing this ADA requirement and maintaining a level playing field for all job applicants.”

For more information on disability discrimination prohibited by the ADA, please visit https://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc-disability-related-resources.

The EEOC’s Pittsburgh Area Office is a component of the Philadelphia District Office, which has jurisdiction over West Virginia, as well as eastern Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, and parts of New Jersey. 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.