Employment discrimination or not?

[Sid286]

After attending a job fair several months ago, I recieved an email from the region manager asking me if I was interested in interviewing for a route sales position. The interview process would be a day of me doing a ride along with another employee. I agreed and did the ride along. It was a physical job that consisted of delivering products throught the day to different locations. I finished the day with no problems. I was then asked to do a series of interviews that lasted about 30 minutes each by members of there hiring team. I did 4 interviews overall that day. During the interviews my gap of employment came up as I had been off from May 2001 until Jan 2005. Was hit at a red light and had spinal fusion done on my back. I explained to every interviewer that this was not a problem as I had just recently graduated from the police academy and I had been working a physical job on the weekend. Everything seemed great. I needed to interview with the manager yet. About a week later I did a phone interview with the manager. The interview lasted about an hour. He said everything went well with my 4 other interviews and that he didnt see any reason not to continue. We talked about the job in length, bonuses, insurance, the whole nine yards. He said that at this point he could not officially offer me the position but he will talk to the recruiter, the person I initially spoke with at the job fair and he should offer me the position in a few days. Needless to say this was great news. In about 3 days I recieved a phone call from the Region manager of hiring. We spoke for about 15 minutes and he said nothing but how well I interviewed and that everyone gave me the thumbs up for the position. He then offers me the position. He gives me a salary which is contingent on a few things. I need to pass a dot physical. (no problem) I need to pass a background check. (I work for homeland security no problem there) I need to get a cdl temp. No problem should take about a week. The last thing I need was to fill an online application form out. I told him no problem Ill do that tonight. The next day I get a phone call early in the morning. The recruiter says he got my application and he has a few questions. Nothing major until the last question. Why is there a 4 year gap of employment. I told him of the auto accident and said but theres nothing wrong with me. I just graduated from the police academy and passed all state requirements. I heard hesistation in his voice. He started drilling me on questions. I told him Ill sign a waiver form. Ill take any physical test you have let me know what you want me to do. He said he was going to talk to his doctor. He said that he hopes I understand that his company pays him to protect them from any liability and hes just doing his job. Meanwhile my DOT physical has already been set up for 2 days from now. He calls me back and says he spoke to his doctor and the doctor says that if it was him in my situation that this would probably not be the best job to take but that people have done jobs more physical than this without incident. He said that instead of taking a DOT that they wanted me to take an industrial physical (one that is more physical than just a DOT) . This is not a part of there hiring process. I said set me up with the date and time. He emailed me the instructions on what I needed to do. I then called him back about 2 hours later and he tells me that he spoke with some risk assessment manager in the company. This manager said to stop all communications with me and end the hiring process immediately. When he told me this it felt like my throat just got hit with a baseball bat. I pretty much gave my 2 week notice, told friends and family about the good news. He said the risk assessment manager felt that I was a liabilty with my back injury. How can they assume that I have a physical disability without even testing me? I even did the job for a day with no problem. Do I have a case for discrimination here? I forgot to mention I have about 7 emails to a from the recruiting manager throught the process. Including 3 on the day he told me they were stopping the hiring process. The emails included that he cancelled my Dot physical and he was setting me up for the industrial physical and a name and number of who I needed to speak with.He sent another email advising me that I needed to sign a waiver form so that they could do a background check. The last email said to disregard his last email about setting up the industrial exam. Never heard from them again.

[Mr. Knowitall]

It sounds like there may be an ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) violation. Although in the earlier discussions it sounds like you brought up your health, that does not appear to be the case during the later, more problematic discussions. They should not be making such detailed inquiries about your physical health, nor scheduling a physical, without having made a firm offer of employment. And having made a firm offer of employment, they should not be revoking the offer based not upon the opinion of a doctor that you cannot perform the job duties (their doctor having apparently told them that you could) but apparently on the advice of a risk manager. That is, the offer should be conditioned only on passing the physical examination. Further, all examinations for a particular position should be identical - and it sounds like they went out of their way to make yours more rigorous than normal (even if they ultimately cancelled it).

I suggest you have your situation reviewed by an employment-side lawyer in your state who is familiar with ADA issues.

[mitousmom]

You might want to contact your local federal EEOC office. EEOC has responsibility for enforcing the ADA. They have information on their website, www.EEOC.gov, on the kinds of pre-employment medical inquiries employers can make.