Settlement Reached In HIV Discrimination Suit

[davidinalameda]

http://www.365gay.com/Newscon06/02/020606hivSuit.htm

A cook who was fired from his job in a North Carolina restaurant after the owners learned he is HIV+ has settled with the company for an undisclosed sum.

Aron Pelela worked as a cook at Mike and Katy's Causeway Café in Wrightsville Beach, NC.

The restaurant fired him after learning that Pelela has HIV In October of 2005.

With the help of Lambda Legal, attorney Joyce L. Davis filed a lawsuit on Pelela's behalf against the restaurant under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which protects people from being discriminated against based on their disabilities, as well as North Carolina law.

[Avalux]

1. Good for him.

It's sad that stuff like this still happens today though.

[Occulus]

2. Shouldn't have settled.

Here's my take: a settlement is tantamount to letting the company get away with what they did. No settlement EVER adequately punishes the company that agrees to it, because the settlement always allows business to continue unhindered.

Were I to settle for anything, it would be for an amount that would cripple the business so much that it must severely curtail its activities or, preferably, go out of business. Furthermore, many settlements include a clause that allows the business to not admit wrongdoing. That needs to be stopped as well. Every business successfully sued or settling a suit should be forced to admit wrongdoing.

After all- we do. We. Humans. People.

Businesses aren't people, and should be treated as less than people.