Employer Pays $250K To Resolve Disability Discrimination Suit
April 08, 2019
JBS Carriers, Inc. has agreed to pay $250,000 to settle allegations that the national trucking company violated the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) when it unlawfully screened out applicants with disabilities for truck driving jobs. It also agreed to drop the third-party contractor that performed the screening. The screening subjected all applicants to a medical history questionnaire, a physical examination, and nine physical abilities tests. If an applicant failed any one of the tests or was prevented from taking the tests based on information obtained from the questionnaire or during the physical examination, the third-party contractor sent JBS Carriers a negative job recommendation. JBS Carriers then withdrew conditional job offers to applicants based on the recommendation. One applicant, who purportedly had more than 30 years of commercial truck driving experience, traveled to complete the screening after JBS Carriers offered her a job. The third-party contractor concluded that she had disqualifying issues with her shoulders, even though the applicant told the examiner that she was only sore from carrying heavy luggage from the bus stop to her motel. JBS Carriers has stopped that practice; it now only requires job applicants to obtain the Department of Transportation (DOT) medical certification necessary to be a licensed commercial truck driver.
