Employers must walk a fine line in determining if disabled staffers can or can’t do a job. One court said this company crossed that line.

How? It violated the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) when it asked questions that weren’t specifically limited to a worker’s ability to do the job at hand.

Questions were too broad

In the midst of a bevy of health and mental problems, security officer James Scott was fired for refusing to respond to questions on a staff medical questionnaire.

Scott filed suit, saying the info he was asked for violated the ADA.

That info included:

• “Have you ever been treated for a mental condition?” and
• “List all medication you are currently taking with dosage and frequency.”

The company said the questions were job-related and necessary – it had to know if Scott was mentally and physically healthy to perform his job as an armed security officer.

But the court said the info it asked for was too broad – they weren’t limited in time and didn’t distinguish between job-related and non-job-related health problems.

The takeaway: Firms can ask about staffers’ ability to do a job, but the questions must be limited to the worker’s ability to perform the job’s essential functions.

Anything beyond that could violate the ADA.

Cite: Scott v. Napolitano