When do medical tests to ensure safety violate ADA?
March 2, 2009 by Sam NarisiPosted in: Americans with Disabilities Act, In this week's e-newsletter, Job Screening Tests, Latest News & Views
The Americans with Disabilities Act forbids companies from giving employees medical tests unless they’re “job related and consistent with business necessity.” What does that really mean? The law doesn’t say, but here’s some guidance from a recent court decision:
To ensure workplace safety, the company required all employees operating equipment such as forklifts and bulldozers to take a medical exam every three years. The exam included tests for hearing, vision, heart problems and reflexes.
There were no medical conditions that automatically disqualified employees from the job. Rather, in questionable cases, the results were sent to a physician for an opinion on whether the employee could perform his job safely.
A long-time worker had passed the exam several times — then one year, he refused to take it. The company reassigned him to a job that didn’t require the medical certification.
He sued, claiming the testing requirement violated the ADA. But the court ruled in favor of the company.
The employer was simply trying to provide a safe workplace — and periodic testing was an appropriate way to achieve that goal. As the court noted, the company couldn’t be expected to wait until there was an accident to learn an employee couldn’t perform the job.
Moreover, everything included in the test had a bearing on the individual’s ability to stay safe. And employees weren’t disqualified automatically based on certain medical conditions — they were all assessed individually based on the opinion of a doctor.
Cite: Wice v. General Motors Corp.
Tags: ADA, medical tests, safety
March 4th, 2009 at 12:18 pm
Does anyone else have this type of testing in place for non-DOT employees? I’d be interested in how to start this type of program, as I think it could be very valuable here.
March 4th, 2009 at 1:02 pm
We have xrays and a physical exam by a doctor to determine if they are capable of performing their job they applied for. I never thought of a hearing test or redoing any of the tests after 3 yrs. We have some employees that have been with the company since 1977 anf if they can’t hear a back-up buzzer of a forklift or bull dozer they can’t get out of the way which would inturn cause an accident, cause OSHA to come out to investigate, cause our Workers Comp rate to increase and our WC experince modifier to increase. This would be great to implement and I am suggesting it immediately.
March 4th, 2009 at 2:14 pm
I don’t see the problem. Firemen, pilots, cops, etc. have taken fitness for duty exams forever, the court ruled in favor of the company in the example above, so what’s the beef?
March 6th, 2009 at 8:59 am
We have 2 different classes of these types of medical tests. One set of tests is for DOT employees and another (similar) set of tests is for employees in classifications that we consider “safety sensitive”. Anyone in either of these classifications are subject to pre-employment testing and random testing.
In addition, any employee who the employer has a reasonable suspicion to believe that he/she is on illegal drugs or is intoxicated at the workplace is subject to a “reasonable suspicion” test. Employees are also subject to a fitness-for-duty test and are required to present a certificate from a physician stating they are fit to return to full work duties after a personal medical leave of absense.
March 6th, 2009 at 11:51 am
Jen;
Just contact any occupational health clinic – they should be able to assist you with setting this type of program up.