Maine lawsuit alleges national trucking firm's employment screenings violated ADA
A lawsuit filed Monday in Portland alleges that an Iowa-based national trucking firm violated federal law by using a pre-employment “back assessment” to screen out and reject job applicants it regarded as disabled for truck-driving positions.
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission alleges those screenings by Hirschbach Motor Lines Inc. were in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act, according to its lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Maine.
According to the EEOC’s complaint, the “back assessment” tested, among other things, an applicant’s ability to balance and stand on one leg, touch their toes while standing on one leg, and crawl. The EEOC alleges that Hirschbach used the assessment to identify and screen out job candidates with pre-existing injuries and/or medical conditions who had received conditional offers of employment — noting that it did so even though the applicants had already received their Department of Transportation medical certifications authorizing them to drive a truck.
The EEOC also said Hirschbach maintains a policy prohibiting its over-the-road truck drivers who have an injury or impairment from working until they are free of restrictions and limitations.
“Such alleged conduct violates the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) which prohibits employers from discriminating based on disability and expressly prohibits employers from using qualification standards that screen out or tend to screen out applicants regarded as disabled unless the standard is shown to be job-related for the position in question and consistent with business necessity,” EEOC stated in a news release. “The ADA also requires employees with disabilities be provided a reasonable accommodation, unless it causes an undue hardship to the employer.”
The lawsuit was filed by EEOC’s New York district office, which oversees New York, northern New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine.
It seeks back pay, compensatory and punitive damages and a court order prohibiting such screenings by Hirschbach in the future.
“Federal law prohibits employers from using standards or tests that tend to screen out the disabled or those applicants the employer regards as disabled,” said Jeffrey Burstein, regional attorney for the EEOC’s New York district office. “Hirschbach’s back assessment was unnecessary to assess the ability of the applicants to perform the job, and was an unlawful standard.”
With corporate headquarters located in Dubuque, Iowa, Hirschbach is a refrigerated carrier, with more than 1,000 drivers nationwide, that specializes in delivering fresh and frozen products in the United States and Mexico. In 2016 it launched a wellness program for its drivers involving weekly one-on-one personal coaching sessions that “resulted in fewer sick days, improved work relationships, weight loss and a more positive office culture,” according to a November 2017 article in Commercial Carrier Journal.
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