Learning Disability Information From Third Parties

The EEOC has taken the position that an employer may make disability-related inquiries or require a medical examination of an employee based, in whole or in part, on information learned from another person. The one caveat is that the information learned must be reliable and would give rise to a reasonable belief that the employee's ability to perform the essential job functions will be impaired by the medical condition or that the individual will pose a direct threat due to the medical condition. For example, suppose that several customers of a mail order company complain that a customer service representative of the company has made numerous errors on their orders. These customers have consistently complained that the employee has a problem hearing because he always asks them to repeat the particulars of their order and frequently asks them to speak louder. The customers also have complained to the company that the employee incorrectly reads back their addresses, even when they have enunciated clearly and spelled street names. In this situation, the employer would have a reasonable belief, based upon objective evidence from others, that the employee's ability to correctly process mail orders was being impaired by a medical condition, in this case a hearing problem. Accordingly, consistent with the ADA requirements, the employer could make disability-related inquiries of the employee or require the individual to submit to a medical examination to determine whether he can perform the essential functions of the job.