Pamela Huber Case Summary

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In this case Pamela Huber was a Wal-Mart Employee, working as a dry grocery order filler earning $13.00 per hour, including a $0.50 shift differential. While working she suffered a permanent injury to her right arm and hand, and was not able to fulfill her duties as an order filler. She later applied for a router position, an equivalent and vacant position but was rejected. The position was given to a more qualified candidate. Wal-Mart reassigned her to another facility and in a different position, a maintenance associate position making $6.20 per hour. She continues in that position and makes $7.97 per hour.
Huber filed suit under ADA, arguing that the router position was a reasonable accommodation for her disability. Wal-Mart filed a motion for summary judgement, stating that they have a non-discriminatory policy of hiring the most qualified individual and that they were not required to assign Huber to the router position. The position was filled with a non-disable applicant with better qualifications.
“The ADA was enacted in 1990 in order to meet what Congress termed a "compelling need" for a "clear and comprehensive national mandate" to prevent discrimination against the disabled. In furtherance of this end, the ADA prohibits discrimination against the disabled "in major areas of public life" including …show more content…

In this case someone will always believe that they were not treated fairly or that the law was not applied fairly. Also, the fact that Wal-Mart is a huge corporation with powerful legal advisors will always be mentioned as a contributing factor for the ruling. However, we also need to consider the other side of the story, the qualified and good candidates that have been ruled out because small companies are afraid to violate the ADA law or any of the details of its scope. It is a “slippery slope” and unfortunately someone will always consider themselves discriminated in some

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