Sears has agreed to pay $6.2 million to settle a federal lawsuit alleging that it illegally fired hundreds of employees on disability leave, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has announced. Sears had an “inflexible leave policy” that called for terminating employees after their leave ended, rather than finding ways for them to return to work“...The settlement [is] the largest single ADA [Americans With Disabilities Act] settlement in the EEOC’s history..."It’s a very important milestone” in disability discrimination cases, said John Hendrickson, an EEOC attorney involved in the case...Sears said it agreed to the settlement because the lawsuit would have taken “quite some time and considerable expense to be resolved fully” in court.