Fired U.S. Aide Wins Suit Because He Wasn’t Counseled as Alcoholic
A man who reportedly drank a pint of gin a day and was fired after missing 14 months of work in three years has won a job discrimination suit based on a law requiring counseling for handicapped federal workers.
Clarence Ferguson, 48, was a purchasing agent for the National Marine Fisheries Service, a federal agency in St. Petersburg, when he was fired four years ago for absenteeism. He missed 389 days of work between 1980 and 1983.
U.S. District Judge Elizabeth Kovachevich ruled Tuesday that Ferguson was legally crippled by alcoholism and his federal employers should have helped him get counseling before letting him go.
She ruled that Ferguson, who has now stopped drinking, should be allowed to reapply for his old job and ordered the agency to give him more than $150,000 in back pay.
The 13-page ruling was rooted in a federal law requiring all federal agencies to “make reasonable accommodations” for handicapped workers, including alcoholics and drug addicts. The law does not extend to private employers.
The National Marine Fisheries Service is an agency in the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, which is controlled by the Commerce Department.
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