Feds: Pepsi Discriminated Against The Blind

by Kevin Burton

   If you’re looking for something to drink, or somewhere to work, choose Coke, not Pepsi.

   According to multiple published reports, PepsiCo hired a blind man for a call center, then fired him rather than get him a screen reader – even after a state vocational rehabilitation counselor offered to buy the equipment.

    This kind of employment discrimination is way too common.  If I ran every story I saw, Page 7 could easily be nothing but stories about such crimes by big companies. Also consider that for every case prosecuted under federal law, there are dozens, maybe hundreds of cases where the blind person just slinks away without a fight, and you begin to understand the scope of the problem.

   Hats off to this unnamed would-be employee for standing up for his rights.

   “PepsiCo hired a blind worker for a North Carolina call center, then fired him after he requested accommodations, federal officials said in a lawsuit,” wrote Olivia Lloyd in the Charlotte Observer.

   “The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission accuses  PepsiCo of discriminating against the man for his disability, according to a lawsuit filed May 31.

   “McClatchy News reached out to PepsiCo for comment and did not immediately receive a response.”

   “In April 2022, the company hired the man for a customer service position at a Winston-Salem call center, federal officials said in the lawsuit.”

   “The man told PepsiCo’s human resources coordinator that he was blind and asked for screen reading software to help him perform his job, which included fielding calls from customers, entering orders, working through issues with soda machines and sending help to customers’ locations, according to the lawsuit.”

   “The man’s vocational counselor at the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services spoke with PepsiCo and “offered to purchase a laptop, screen reader, and other technology as needed” to help accommodate the new hire, EEOC attorneys wrote in the lawsuit.”

   “Federal officials said the company told the counselor it had to handle accommodations internally,” Lloyd wrote.

   “The man’s initial start date came and went as PepsiCo put him on unpaid leave to figure out the accommodations, officials said. The company said their software couldn’t accommodate a screen reader, according to the lawsuit.”

   “Human resources employees told the man they were going to get new software in 2025, but upgrading the current system to be compatible with a screen reader could cost up to $1 million and take over a year, officials said.”

   “The company said it didn’t have any other positions that would work for him and fired him, according to the lawsuit.”

   “The EEOC says the company violated the Americans with Disabilities Act by failing to provide a reasonable accommodation, then firing the new hire.”

   If you are inclined to boycott corporate criminals such as Pepsi, you can reach for Coke in the grocery store. According to google,  national restaurant chains Taco Bell, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Pizza Hut, Papa John’s, Buffalo Wild Wings, Hooters, Ihop and Red Lobster all sell Pepsi products. You could seek out the main competitors of these chains and buy their products instead.

   You could go so far as to look up who sells the various bottled water and energy drink products and make your purchases accordingly. 

   Most people won’t go that far to penalize Pepsi.

   Also, calculate if you will, the odds that Pepsi’s competitors have clean hands in regard to employment discrimination.

   Consumer backlash can work to send a message to big companies, even with a popular product.  Ask Bud Light. But it’s rare.

   So why even write this post?  It’s just that cases such as this one – like PepsiCo products – leave a bad taste in my mouth.

   If things play out as they usually do, Pepsi will pay a financial penalty for violating federal employment law, but it will amount to chump change for an international behemoth.

   Surely Pepsi will go on treating the blind like chumps.