Marlo Spaeth started working as a sales associate at a Walmart in Manitowoc, Wis., in 1999, folding towels, cleaning aisles, processing returns and greeting customers, her lawyers said. Over the next 15 years, she received several pay raises and positive performance reviews.
But Spaeth's hours suddenly shifted in November 2014, when Walmart instituted a computerized scheduling system, which the company said was based on customer traffic and was designed to ensure that enough people were working when the store was busiest.
Spaeth was expected to work from 1 p.m. to 5:30 p.m., rather than her previous schedule of noon to 4 p.m., her lawyers said.
The change represented a significant hardship for Spaeth, who has Down syndrome and thrives on routine, her lawyers said. Spaeth repeatedly told a manager that she wanted her old schedule back, her lawyers said.
But the company refused to switch Spaeth back to her old schedule at the store, which was open 24 hours a day and had more than 300 employees, her lawyers said. Walmart then took disciplinary action against Spaeth twice for absenteeism and tardiness, her lawyers said.
On July 10, 2015, Walmart fired Spaeth for excessive absenteeism.
Spaeth and her mother and sister met with Walmart managers and asked that she be rehired and allowed to return to her old working hours, her lawyers said. But Walmart refused to rehire her, even though her termination letter said she could be hired again, her lawyers said.
On Thursday, a jury in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin in Green Bay found that Walmart had violated the Americans with Disabilities Act, which bans discrimination based on an employee's disability, and awarded Spaeth $125 million in punitive damages and $150,000 in compensatory damages.
