The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that United Parcel Service (UPS) violated the Americans with Disabilities Act by maintaining a qualification standard that screened out deaf drivers, where the company could not show that the standard was required for business reasons.
The case involved qualifications for UPS package-car drivers, who pick up and deliver parcels in the familiar brown UPS trucks. To be considered for the position, an individual must, among other requirements, pass the physical exam the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) requires for commercial vehicle drivers, even though the DOT itself doesn’t require this test for smaller trucks such as the UPS package cars.
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The exam standard was challenged in a class action lawsuit by deaf drivers who could not pass the hearing component of the DOT exam. They contended the company’s blanket exclusion of deaf individuals from package car positions because they could not pass the DOT exam violated the ADA. UPS argued the exam requirement was justified by business necessity—that is, the company’s need to hire safe drivers.
But according to the Ninth Circuit, UPS failed to show business necessity—that the standard was necessary because substantially all deaf drivers presented a higher risk of accidents than non-deaf drivers, or because there were no practical criteria for making individual determinations as to which deaf drivers presented a heightened risk and which did not.
In an upcoming issue of the California Employer Advisor, we’ll have full details on this ruling, including why it may make it easier for employees to challenge qualification standards like the one maintained by UPS.
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