The company’s policy to initiate drug test before recruiting new employees may be scrutinized for alleged discrimination against people with disability. A Tennesse based trucking company Covenant Transport has to experienced such thing.
Covenant Transport has to pay $30,000 in settlement and other relied to violation of Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), according to report from ABC News. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) filed the lawsuit in May 2016, claiming the company’s refusal to hire an applicant was taken due to his disability.
The company has instituted a policy for a pre-employment drug test, in which the applicants provide urine sample for testing purpose. However, one applicant who has a medical condition was unable to provide sample due to his bladder exstrophy. He offered to provide blood test for drug screening test, instead.
Following the agreement for drug testing using his blood sample, the company later decided not to hire the applicant due to his medical condition. According to press release from the EEOC, the agency attempted to reach settlement prior to the litigation. However, the company denied to discriminate the applicant based on his medical condition.
EEOC was not satisfied with the respond from Covenant Transport. Afterward, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee, alleging Covenant Transport to violate the ADA and failed to provide equal employment opportunity.
As Covenant Transport agreed to reach the settlement, Judge Thomas A. Varlan wrote a consent decree for the company to pay $30,000 in compensatory damages to the applicant. As a prevention for further incident, the company has to develop a written pre-employment drug testing policy. Furthermore, it has to provide annual training to its recruitment team and head of safety annually for the next two years.
Watch the explanation of pre-employment drug test and random drug test below:
