A Delta Township firefighter, injured on the job, is suing, claiming discrtimination.
Firefighter Nathaniel House injured his back on Feb. 21, 2024, while lifting a patient. That injury was disabling, the lawsuit states.
As a result of the on-the-job injury, House was ordered off work by doctors until March 4, 2024. At that time, doctors cleared him to return to a restricted “light duty” schedule and workload, according to WLNS.
Delta Township Fire Department leadership failed to provide him with any specific job duties or expectations but required him to drive to work each day.
“That extensive time driving a vehicle further exacerbated plaintiff’s [House] back condition,” the lawsuit contends.
House contends in his lawsuit that he sought accommodations for his disability on multiple occasions, but was instead subjected to retaliation by township officials. Specifically, he contends, township officials refused to allow him to transfer to a part-time position that would not require heavy-duty activity and interfered with his small business.
That small business was a mentoring and training program for firefighters and emergency medical personnel.
He alleges the township, by refusing to accommodate his disability fired him from the job. The technical term is “constructive discharge.” The U.S. Department of Labor defines “constructive discharge” as “when a worker’s resignation or retirement may be found not to be voluntary because the employer has created a hostile or intolerable work environment or has applied other forms of pressure or coercion which forced the employee to quit or resign.
