The nation’s largest HR group is set to face a jury this week over allegations that it mishandled a job applicant’s request for a disability accommodation.
The trial comes after the Society for Human Resource Management, or SHRM, was hit by a jury with an $11.5 million verdict last year in an unrelated race discrimination and retaliation case involving a former employee. SHRM has since appealed that decision.
In the complaint for the lawsuit about to go to trial, plaintiff Fiona Torres alleges that SHRM offered her a role as a senior specialist in its product management department in June 2024, then revoked the offer that July because she wanted to bring her medical service dog to work. She said she is diabetic and that her dog could detect changes in her blood-sugar levels faster and more reliably than a top-tier glucose monitor.
“I was ready and able to work,” Torres previously told Business Insider in an email through her attorney. “They said they were eager to have me until they found out I had a disability and a service dog.”
In a January court filing in response to the allegations, SHRM said it offered Torres “multiple accommodations,” including the ability to use her continuous glucose monitoring system and an insulin pump at work, to take breaks as needed to check her blood sugar levels, and to consume food or drink as needed at or near her workstation.
SHRM also posted a statement to its website on September 28 about the case, saying that it had “tried to understand Torres’ need” for a service dog and what reasonable accommodations were available. SHRM further said it asked Torres to speak with her doctor about an alternative to the dog.
“This was a genuine good-faith attempt to find a mutually agreeable solution through an interactive process,” the group said in the statement. “SHRM did not say no; we followed proper procedure.”
The trial, which is scheduled to last four days, will take place in Alexandria, Virginia, where SHRM is headquartered.
Last year, Business Insider reported that SHRM had been embroiled in various controversies. Those included an attendance policy that penalized workers who arrived a minute after 9 a.m.; a memo about a “conservative” dress code that banned sequins; and a companywide meeting in which SHRM CEO Johnny C. Taylor said some staffers were “entitled,” “complacent,” and “sloppy.”
