Everybody has heard stories about somebody being fired over something silly, but what over something entirely outside of anybody else’s control?
In July of 2016 A Hudson Valley a one legged factory worker named Javier Amigon was fired from his job at Kirker Enterprises. Javier worked on the factory line for a local nail polish manufacturer for three decades after immigrating from Mexico in 1987.
Image by New York Post
In 1985 Javier was a victim of a violent assault that took his left leg, and also took off a portion of his right foot, driving him to migrate from his home to come to the country. After coming to the country he found work as a nail polish topper in New Jersey, and did his job there for 30 years while raising a family.
While doing his job over a three-decade period, he would put tops on nail polish containers as he sat in a stool, this was seen as a reasonable accommodation by the previous owners of the company. However ,after the factory was acquired by Kirker Enterprises, the new management threw out the stool that was on site, forcing all employees to stand.
Javier’s feet then began to bleed from the strain on the job site, which forced him to go on medical leave. During this time, Javier produced multiple doctors notes saying that he could work just as effectively while seated.
After a period of time he was unceremoniously fired by his employer in July 2016. In response, he filed a class action lawsuit, which has been taken up by the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission as of this year.
If you were fired over something like this how might you respond, do you think the employer was in the wrong or the right? Let us know in the comments.