BlogLine

EEOC Lawsuit for Disability and Genetic Information Discrimination is Cautionary Tale for Employers

9/28/17

By: Paul H. Derrick
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is seeking back pay, compensatory damages, punitive damages, and injunctive relief against one of the nation’s largest retailers for withdrawing job offers to applicants whose post-offer medical examinations revealed they had disabilities. The lawsuit also alleges that the post-offer medical examinations unlawfully solicited family medical history from those job applicants.
In the lawsuit, the EEOC alleges that an applicant received a job offer contingent on successfully completing the company’s post-offer medical examination. When the employee revealed during the examination that he suffered from monocular vision, medical personnel informed him that the company required applicants have corrected 20/50 vision or better in both eyes. Despite successfully having performed similar work in the past, the employee’s job offer was rescinded.
The EEOC also claims that the company screened out people with high blood pressure and a variety of other conditions, even though the impairments would not prevent the individuals from performing the jobs they had already been offered. During the post-offer medical examinations, applicants were asked to provide detailed information about their family medical history, including answering questions about cancer, heart disease, and diabetes.
Regardless of the outcome of this lawsuit, employers should see it as a reminder that the Americans with Disabilities Act prohibits the use of selection criteria or qualification standards that screen out individuals with disabilities unless those standards are job-related or consistent with business necessity. Post-offer medical examinations are not automatically unlawful, but they cannot be used to weed out individuals with disabilities.
Likewise, the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act protects employees or job applicants from discrimination based on genetic information. GINA includes a strict prohibition against soliciting a job applicant or employee’s family medical history.
If you have any questions or would like more information, please contact Paul Derrick at pderrick@fmglaw.com.