News Followup: EEOC Wins Lawsuit On Behalf Of Abused Disabled Workers

Abused disabled Iowa workers awarded $240M

Clark Kauffman, Des Moines Register

Each of the victims received a $7.5 million judgement from the jury, which only too eight hours to make their decision.

Two things I found interesting in this article:

1. The defense claimed that the City of Atalissa, which owned the building and leased it to the company, was responsible for its terrible conditions. I think there's something to that, but that maybe a separate judgment should be made against the City for allowing the situation to continue. It doesn't absolve the company's responsibility. In fact, lots of people are responsible, to some degree, for blissful ignorance, if nothing else. It seems like an example of out of sight, out of mind, plus an assumption that anyone who says they are "taking care of" people with disabilities must be doing God's work.

2. It sounds like the owner of the company, at the very least, had an extremely old-fashioned view of what he was doing, and probably had himself convinced that he was being good to these guys. Again, we see this idea that all you need is good intentions. You don't need to learn anything, you don't need to ever question what you're doing or how you're doing it, and you don't have to submit to outside verification from anyone if you are providing for these poor unfortunates. Doing good may be many things, but it's rarely simple, and good intentions are rarely enough.

On the other hand, maybe he was just greedy, full stop.

The following video accompanies the story: