Thanks to the generous support of our donors, Disability Rights Advocates is pleased to make available on our website and in our offices the work of artists from the National Institute of Art & Disabilities (NIAD). NIAD provides an art program that promotes creativity, independence, dignity, and community integration for people with developmental and other disabilities.
With the exception of seven individuals who pursued their driving claim through service as a named plaintiff or as a union grievant, additional monetary relief will not be paid to class members as part of the proposed settlement.
Class members may however pursue their potential monetary claims by filing an individual administrative action with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) or their home state equivalent. Filing a claim with the EEOC or your home state equivalent is a necessary prerequisite to filing a lawsuit in federal or state court. Filing a claim is not a guarantee that you will obtain monetary relief.
The steps you may need to take to pursue a claim for monetary compensation are summarized below. The information provided in this email is not a substitute for retaining direct legal representation.
You have a limited amount of time to file a claim for monetary relief because of the statute of limitation. A statute of limitation is a time frame that defines the length of time an individual has to file a claim. The statute of limitation varies depending on the type of claim you file and the state you live in. The statute of limitation on your claim can be as short as 180 days. Please contact your EEOC or state equivalent office to determine your deadline for initiating a claim for monetary relief. It is important to tell the EEOC or state equivalent office that the statute of limitation on your claim has been tolled or suspended since June 25, 1997 and that the statute of limitation on your claim, if not already time-barred, began to run on June 29, 2009 based on the class action lawsuit Bates v. UPS, Case No. 99-cv-02216 (TEH). Additional information about the Bates v. UPS case can be found here
If you want to pursue monetary compensation, your first step is to file a charge with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) or the equivalent state agency. The link below will take you to a page on the EEOC's website containing information about how to file a charge of employment discrimination:
A list of state agencies that handle complaints of employment discrimination can be found at:
The court’s granting of preliminary approval to the class action settlement in the Bates v. UPS case on June 29, 2009 means that that the time period for you to file a claim for monetary compensation has now begun to run. As a result, you now have a limited amount of time to take steps to pursue an individual case seeking monetary relief based on the denial of a driving job opportunity due to UPS’s use of the DOT hearing standard. If you may be interested in pursuing an individual case for monetary relief, you should consult an attorney or your local EEOC or state equivalent office for information about how to file and to determine the appropriate deadline for filing.
You do not need to be represented by an attorney to file a charge with the EEOC or the equivalent state agency. However, if you would like the assistance of an attorney, you may contact your local county bar association for a referral to an attorney in your area. This information is frequently available in the yellow and/or white pages.
Some factors that may affect the strength of your individual claim for monetary compensation are: (i) whether you applied or would have applied for driving jobs at UPS and were denied such opportunities due to UPS’s application of the DOT hearing standard to all of its vehicles; (ii) whether there was driving work available that could have been performed using a vehicle under 10,001 pounds; (iii) whether you had sufficient seniority to obtain driving work; and (iv) whether you meet the less stringent hearing requirements of the Hearing Protocol.
We hope this information helps provide you with a sense of your options. We would appreciate your sharing with us the status of any action you take to seek monetary compensation.
