CONVERGYS Disabled worker to get $114,000

The company did not make accommodations for the man's poor mobility.
ST. LOUIS (AP) -- A federal jury awarded a disabled worker more than $114,000 in back pay and damages late Friday over claims that his firing for excessive tardiness violated the Americans with Disabilities Act.
The claim was made against Convergys Customer Management Group Inc., a division of Cincinnati-based Convergys Corp., which provides outsourced customer service and billing operations. The jury reached its verdict after a five-day trial in federal court here.
Messages seeking comment were left at Convergys' headquarters and for its St. Louis attorney, Mary Bonacorsi.
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in St. Louis sued Convergys in 2004 under the Americans With Disabilities Act for firing Yigit Demirelli, saying the company refused to accommodate him. Demirelli, 27, a native of Turkey, later joined the case as a second plaintiff.
Demirelli, who came to the U.S. as a child for treatment at Shriners Hospital for Children in St. Louis, suffers from a congenital degenerative bone disease, which restricts him to a wheelchair and has resulted in dozens of fractures and surgeries.
What happened
The EEOC said Convergys hired him as a telephone customer service representative at its call center in suburban St. Louis but fired him 18 months later for excessive tardiness. One month earlier, he had received a good performance evaluation and was recognized for perfect attendance, the EEOC said.
Demirelli's tardiness problem could have been solved if the company granted him a few extra minutes for his meal break, and assigned him a handicapped parking spot and work station, the EEOC said.
Demirelli was sometimes late returning from his meal break because his poor mobility made it nearly impossible to use the bathroom, purchase and eat a meal and return to his station in the allotted 30 minutes, the EEOC said.
The EEOC said Demirelli was also sometimes late because he could not find a vacant handicapped parking spot, and had to roll his wheelchair a long distance from his car to the office. He also had to maneuver his wheelchair through crowded aisles to find an available work station and headset before he could clock in.
"We are so thrilled to get this verdict for him," EEOC attorney Barbara Seely said. "He's gone through so much."
Demirelli thanked the jury for believing in him and for sending a signal to Convergys that it could have accommodated him.