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.
