FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 2, 2025
Timken Company to Pay $55,000 in EEOC Disability Discrimination Lawsuit
Federal Agency Says Manufacturing Company Discriminated Against Hard-of-Hearing Applicant
CHICAGO – The Timken Company, a manufacturer of rod end and spherical bearings, has agreed to pay $55,000 and provide other relief to settle a disability discrimination lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the federal agency announced today.
According to the EEOC’s lawsuit, Timken rescinded a job offer to a qualified applicant, an engineer with decades of manufacturing experience, because he is hard of hearing. The company and one of its subsidiaries refused to hire the applicant for a manufacturing engineer position because he could not pass a pre-employment hearing test, the suit alleged. When it rescinded the job offer, Timken did not consider reasonable accommodations that would have addressed any job-related concerns the company had about the applicant’s hearing.
Such alleged conduct violates the ADA, which prohibits employers from failing to hire qualified workers on the basis of their disabilities. After first attempting to reach a pre-litigation settlement through its conciliation process, the EEOC filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois (Civil Action No. 1:24-cv-8983). The consent decree settling the suit requires Timken to pay $55,000 in lost wages and other monetary relief to the former applicant, either discontinue the use of or validate the job-relatedness of any hearing test it uses as a hiring criterion, and conduct training to prevent future ADA violations.
“The ADA protects the rights of applicants—not just employees,” said Greg Gochanour, regional attorney for the EEOC’s Chicago District Office. “Such protection includes the prohibition of pre-employment tests that are not job-related or consistent with business necessity and that tend to screen out applicants with disabilities.”
Amrith Aakre, district director of the EEOC’s office in Chicago, said, “We are pleased the parties were able to negotiate a resolution early in the litigation. We hope that this agreement will help ensure that individuals with disabilities who apply to Timken are evaluated based on their qualifications for the job.”
The EEOC’s Chicago District Office is responsible for processing charges of employment discrimination, administrative enforcement and the conduct of agency litigation in Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa and North and South Dakota, with offices in Milwaukee and Minneapolis.
More information about disability discrimination is available at https://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc-disability-related-resources.
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 https://www.eeoc.gov/. Stay connected with the latest EEOC news by subscribing to our email updates.
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