The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is suing a New Kensington drug treatment center for allegedly discriminating against an employee who is a recovering addict.

According to the lawsuit, an official with Greenbriar Treatment Center fired a full-time intensive treatment counselor after she tested positive for methadone in a random drug test.

The woman, who is not identified in the complaint, told her boss that she had a legal prescription for methadone and that she'd been in a methadone maintenance program since she was hired in September 2002.

She was fired anyway, the lawsuit contends.

Later, when she met her boss to turn in her office keys, he berated her, telling her "she should be ashamed of herself," and that he was considering pressing charges.

The lawsuit asserts a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act, because the woman's past issues of addiction rendered her substantially impaired, and therefore disabled.

The EEOC is seeking to stop Greenbriar from similar future actions, back pay for the woman and compensatory and punitive damages.