Dive Brief:
- Amsted Rail Co., a manufacturer of steel casings for the rail industry, will pay $4.4 million to resolve a U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) lawsuit. The agency alleged that the Chicago-based company violated the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) when it disqualified job applicants based on the results of a nerve conduction test for carpal tunnel syndrome, rather than conducting an assessment of each applicant’s ability to do the job.
- In a 2014 lawsuit, the EEOC sought relief for workers who had applied for jobs as chippers at the company’s Granite City, Illinois, facility. Chippers used a hammer or grinder to remove metal protrusions from steel casings, according to the EEOC. A court ruled that Amsted Rail’s use of the test was unlawful, finding that it had little or no value in predicting the likelihood of future injury, according to the commission.
- The consent decree requires the company to pay lost wages and compensatory damages to 40 applicants who were denied employment because of the hiring practice, to make job offers to some of the applicants and to adopt policies to prevent similar practices in the future.
Dive Insight:
Federal law generally allows employers to set physical qualifications for job as long as they are job-related and consistent with business necessity. However, if a test has an adverse impact on a protected group, an alternative test should be used, EEOC said.
Moreover, the commission has previously warned that if an employer retains a third-party to conduct tests, the employer is still responsible for ensuring the screenings comply with federal law. In this instance, the physical test was performed by a third-party contractor. The EEOC's St. Louis district director said in a statement announcing the settlement that employers cannot avoid liability for unlawful discrimination by contracting out pre-employment medical screening and hiring functions.
These requirements are part of the ADA's mandate that employees each receive an individualized assessment to determine whether they can perform the essential functions of a job, and/or whether there is a reasonable accommodation that would allow them to perform those functions.