Two recent victories for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission should remind employers that rejecting a job applicant over a medical condition, even when the condition appears directly related to job performance, can expose the employer to serious legal consequences under the Americans with Disabilities Act.
On April 15, the Northern District of Illinois approved an $80,000 settlement in an EEOC lawsuit claiming an employer violated the ADA when it reversed course on its decision to hire an applicant after learning of his prostate cancer diagnosis. Two days later, the Middle District of Florida granted summary judgment for the EEOC on its claim that an employers revocation of an applicants job offer based on the results of a medical examination revealing prior back surgery violated the ADAs regarded as disabled provision. Together these cases demonstrate that, whether the employer is irresponsibly ignorant of the ADAs requirements concerning medical criteria in hiring decisions or contracts with an outside company in an effort to comply with them, the ADAs extensive regulations governing medical testing and screening, along with the EEOCs interpretative guidance, add unique challenges to the hiring process.
