According to the EEOC’s suit, in August 2019, Dave Hall, MWR Technician Senior, submitted documentation to Fluor from his doctor detailing that a successful surgery rendered him cancer-free and fit for duty and re-deployment to Afghanistan. Upon receipt, however, Fluor immediately deemed Hall medically disqualified and released him from the project. Fluor Federal failed to conduct an independent evaluation of Hall’s ability to perform his job and could have provided Hall with a waiver, allowing him to be re-deployed, but failed to do so.

Such alleged conduct violates the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).  The EEOC filed suit (Civil Action No. 1:21-cv-4062 AT CMS) in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, Atlanta Division, after first attempting to reach a pre-litigation settlement via its conciliation process. The EEOC is seeking back pay, compensatory damages, and punitive damages for Mr. Hall, as well as injunctive relief to prevent future discrimination.

“The ADA prohibits employers from terminating their employees because of a disability and denying them equal employment opportunities,” said Marcus G. Keegan, regional attorney for the EEOC’s Atlanta District Office. “Here, where the termination was immediate upon receiving notice of a disability, there was a clear violation of the ADA.”

Darrell Graham, district director of the Atlanta office, said, “The EEOC is committed to enforcing the ADA to protect the rights of such aggrieved employees.”

The extreme cold over Antarctica helped push sea ice levels surrounding the continent to their fifth-highest level on record in August, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center.

Extraordinarily cold weather continues to grip the Antarctic Plateau. Maximiliano Herrera, a climatologist who monitors world weather extremes, tweeted that temperature at Russia’s Vostok Station sunk to minus-110.9 degrees (minus-79.4 Celsius) on Thursday (Sept. 30), which was just one degree (0.6 Celsius) from the world’s lowest temperature on record during October.

The current temperatures are still some distance from the coldest ever observed on the continent. In 1983, Vostok plummeted to minus-129 degrees (minus-89.6 Celsius). Satellites have detected temperatures as low as minus-144 degrees (minus-98 Celsius).

Matthew Lazzara, an expert on the meteorology of Antarctica and scientist at the University of Wisconsin, monitored the South Pole temperatures in recent months from his office in Madison with awe. In an interview, he said it was around minus-100 degrees on numerous occasions. Over the years, he’s traveled to Antarctica numerous times to support his research.

“At these temperatures, it is difficult to operate aircraft,” he wrote in an email. “Between -50°C and -58°C you put the aircraft at risk with the hydraulics freezing up or fuel turning into a jelly.”

Reason for this cold anomaly

The conditions over Antarctica are in stark contrast to much of the rest of the planet which notched its fourth hottest June through August on record, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The Northern Hemisphere registered its second hottest summer.

Scientists credited a very strong polar vortex, or a ring of strong winds in the stratosphere, surrounding Antarctica for the intensity of the cold.

The stratospheric polar vortex is a seasonal phenomenon. In the Southern Hemisphere, it forms in the fall, persists through the winter and weakens before reversing course in spring.