Chicago Tribune - May 24, 2005
Barbara Rose, Tribune staff reporter

The action comes more than a decade after a wave of suits by AIDS patients hit the federal courts, and the issue was spotlighted by the film "Philadelphia," in the early 1990s in which Tom Hanks played an AIDS-infected lawyer fighting to get his job back.

HIV is the virus that causes AIDS.

Much has changed in recent years, including better-educated employers and improved drugs that keep HIV sufferers healthier, but activists say discrimination persists.

A spokesman at Penneys' headquarters in Plano, Texas, while declining to discuss the suit's specific allegations, said, "We always attempt to conduct our business in a proper and ethical manner and respect the rights of all our employees."

The suit was filed last week on behalf of Joseph Manasse in Cook County Circuit Court under Illinois law.

It alleges that managers at Penneys' store in Niles falsely accused him of theft in order to fire him because they had problems with his HIV status.

Manasse ran the shoe department for 15 months until May 20, 2003, during which time shoe sales increased by 11 percent and the staff grew to 11 employees from four, according to the suit.

Manasse was congratulated on the turnaround and got a merit raise and an excellent performance review less than one month before his 2003 firing, the suit claims.

But on May 20, the suit alleges, he was called into a meeting by the Niles store manager with two security managers and told he was being fired because cash registers were short a combined $66.20 from three separate days.

The managers, who allegedly said they had caught him stealing the money on closed circuit monitors, reported the incidents to local police.

Manasse was found not guilty of theft by a judge, according to the suit.

Won benefits appeal

In addition, after initially being denied unemployment benefits, he won a ruling from the Illinois Department of Employment Security's Appeals Division that he was eligible for benefits because he "was discharged for reasons other than misconduct connected with work," the suit claims.

Manasse couldn't get another job because of the theft report on his credit record, according to the suit.

He seeks a jury trial and compensatory and punitive damages for defamation, wrongful firing, emotional distress and other charges.

Manasse could not be reached for comment Monday. His lawyer, Walid Joseph Tamari of Chicago's Tamari & Blumenthal LLC, declined to elaborate beyond the filing.

Federal complaints about HIV employment discrimination have declined since the mid-1990s, when the American with Disabilities Act--which took effect in 1992--was seen as an effective vehicle for challenging discrimination.

Disability rules tightened

Subsequent court rulings narrowed the definition of disability, making it harder for people with various conditions, including HIV, to win favorable rulings, according to attorneys.

As a result, all disability-related complaints at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission have fallen off, but HIV complaints have dropped more sharply.

Last year, 206 complaints of HIV discrimination were filed with the EEOC, just 1.3 percent of all ADA-related complaints. That compares with 353, or 1.8 percent, in 1995.

Activists say discrimination is more sophisticated than a decade ago.

"It's actually pretty rare that an employee will receive a written notice saying the firing is because of HIV status," said Jon Givner, HIV project director for Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, the largest and oldest civil rights legal organization dealing with HIV and AIDS issues.

"More often employers rely on pretexts or don't actually fire someone but discriminate in more subtle ways."

Ann Fisher, executive director of the AIDS Legal Council of Chicago, said some discrimination is motivated by fear of increased health care and insurance costs.

"The stigma is certainly still out there, but we've also got a system where there are economic incentives against hiring or retaining somebody with HIV," she said.

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