Steve Mitchell v.
MetLife (EEOC Charge No. 170-2005-03270) 
Steve Mitchell v.
MetLife (EEOC Charge No. 170-2005-03270)
Update (12/22/08): I have at last settled out of court for a respectable yet hardly reasonable sum given the treatment I had while still employed at MetLife. They are a despicable company! Remember, this was all about people treating people poorly. The more things change, the more they remain the same. One day, some of these people will be in wheelchairs themselves and then and only then will they realize the vantage point I have had for the past 21 years. So much for working with supposedly educated people!!
Update (4/30/08): The EEOC has found MetLife guilty despite their rebuttal. At this time I am awaiting my letter from the EEOC giving me my right to sue. After which, I will have 90 days to secure representation and file a lawsuit.
This site is dedicated to the heinous treatment I endured while employed at MetLife over 7 1/2 years as a disabled individual. More importantly, it is dedicated to the truth which above all needs to be known by the disabled community and the population at large. The EEOC, having found my claim extremely credible given the multitude of submitted documentation, served MetLife in January of 2006. In the ensuing months, a dialogue was opened between myself and the company and a mediation session was scheduled for April 1st, 2006. However, mediation proved to be unsuccessful.While many people may have entertained the offer I received, it became more apparent to me, given the conversation at this mediation, that my case was quite strong and that I had a moral obligation to expose MetLife for their non-compliance with the Americans With Disabilities Act. At this time, the EEOC is continuing their investigation and I am preparing to litigate my case in a federal court of law. Not only am I going to bring charges against MetLife proper but am also going to indict the individuals named in my resignation letter (see below) whose ignorance in not granting me a proactive response to my reasonable requests that the verbage of the ADA clearly supports.
Before you read the following, keep in mind that MetLife is ranked 47th on the Forbes 500 with nearly a trillion dollars in assets. Given their overwhelming financial ability to accomodate a wheelchair individual and be compliant with the ADA, I hereby find MetLife guilty of the following:
Forcing me to have to catherize myself in
front of a urinal because they would not advocate for me by
informing the associate body of the etiquette in using the one
and only handicap stall for the first 4 years of my employment.
Forced to seek entry at my own place of
work through a door that often gets wind locked and which even
ambulatory people have difficulty opening. All attempts to have
an automatic door opener installed were thwarted by the company.
Even after telling them that I had a dislocated collarbone and
subsequent to corroborated physical therapy at a nearby rehab
still made no difference to the company. Hence, the company put
me at continued physical risk with an air of indifference.
Meanwhile, they dictated all facets of finishing off the first
floor for new associates at a substantial cost but continued to
cite that they did not own the building and could not have an
automatic door opener installed.
Again being put in harms way by refusing
to move a shelf in the bathroom stall that I consistently ram my
elbow into as I am forced to blindly back into in order to gain
access and close the door for privacy. How lame is it not to
remove two screws and drill two more to place the shelf
elsewhere.
Not providing a bathroom stall large
enough for another wheelchair associate, who is in an electric
chair, to close said door for privacy eventhough they are aware
of this situation. I wonder how the rest of the associate body
would like it if all the doors to the stalls were removed. The
angry response would surely be overwhelming.
Being told by the head HR Generalist, Ian
Clinton, that "You are not the center of the universe, and
we are not going to monitor the bathrooms for you." Being a
person in the minority because of his nationality, one would
think he would be enlightened enough to realize my situation and
advocate for me. Instead, he treated me like I was the problem.
Ignorance like his knows no bounds and it's prove positive that
discrimination exists even among the educated and people in high
positions.
Sadly, but not least of all, is that I
left a fellow disabled wheelchair associate who is unable to
close the door when using the bathroom stall. How sad is it that
MetLife's human resources is aware of this situation and despite
no quarrels from this gentlemen, the company isn't proactive
enough to remedy the situation. I wonder how the president of the
company would like it if there was no door on the stall he uses.
MetLife should be ashamed of themselves.
The following are documents of interest in regards to my case.
Resignation Letter - This letter along with an explanation for my resignation was sent to Robert Benmosche, President and CEO of MetLife via certified mail. No response was ever garnered by me having done this. This letter constitutes a thorough account of the disability discrimination I endured during my entire tenure at said company. It is quite definitive and can be corroborated in its entirety.
EEOC Charges (as served upon the company)
Vindictive Letter From MetLife - this letter was sent to me subsequent to me emailing the associates in the Scranton after I left the company. In my email I said goodbye to the friends I had made and included the resignation letter to inform them why I had left. I also made mention of the positive response I had garnered from the editor of Diversity Inc. magazine as I had passed on my experience to him in an effort to expose MetLife and to give credence to why MetLife did not deserve to be named one of the top 50 companies in the country with regards to diversity in the workplace.
The rest of my case which includes pictures, internal emails and other support documentation will be posted shortly. If you wish to weigh in on my case go to my blog and leave your opinion. GO TO BLOG
"One man with courage makes a majority"
- Andrew Jackson