DENVER — A Colorado trucking firm faces a lawsuit by the federal government for allegedly improperly using medical and physical screening processes to exclude job applicants with disabilities.
According to a lawsuit by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado, JBS Carriers, which contracts with a third-party, ErgoMed Work Systems, Inc. for its pre-employment screening, violated the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The EEOC alleges JBS Carriers relied on an accepted ErgoMed's recommendations and screening of job applicants, which discriminated against applicants with disabilities.
"A job candidate should be evaluated based on his or her ability to do the job, not based on the ability to pass an arbitrary medical exam or onerous physical testing that is not related to the actual job requirements," EEOC Phoenix District Office regional attorney Mary Jo O'Neill said in a statement. "This arrangement operates to outsource disability discrimination."
The EEOC seeks appropriate relief, including back wages, compensatory and punitive damages for the aggrieved individuals as well as a permanent injunction and implementation of new policies by JBS Carriers to prevent disability discrimination.