Hospital agrees to $340K settlement in latex suit

John Muir Health has agreed to pay $340,000 to seven nurses and a lab technician who were denied jobs at the health care provider's Walnut Creek hospital because they were allergic to latex.

The federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced the settlement on Wednesday, a day after it was approved by an Oakland judge.

The EEOC says John Muir Health discriminated against the eight women on the basis of a perceived disability—an allergy to latex—when it withdrew their job offers in 2003 and 2004.

The commission says John Muir should have provided the women with widely available substitutes for gloves and hospital equipment that contain latex.