Husband has a back injury

[Multimom]

What is the name of your state? Texas

In April 2001, my husband was discharged from the Texas Air National Guard because of a back injury.

He recently applied for a job with a car dealership in which he was asked the following "illegal questions." What recourse do we have??

1. Was you discharge from the military a medical discharge??

2. How bad is your back injury?

3. Are you addicted to the medication given to you for your back injury?

4. What medication do you take for your back injury?

Because he was deemed 80% disabled by the military and he has documentation of the injury and the surgery and because is substantially limits his daily activites, I believe he falls under the Americans With Disabilities Act.

Also, is it legal in Texas to ask information regarding his military status. I know in some states it is not.

This is an auto dealership with well over the legally required 15 employees.

I mean how many illegal questions can they ask and get away with it.

 

[CheeseBlotto]

On what are you basing your claim that it's illegal to ask these questions?

 

[weenor]

What is the name of your state? Texas

In April 2001, my husband was discharged from the Texas Air National Guard because of a back injury.

He recently applied for a job with a car dealership in which he was asked the following "illegal questions." What recourse do we have??

1. Was you discharge from the military a medical discharge??

2. How bad is your back injury?

3. Are you addicted to the medication given to you for your back injury?

4. What medication do you take for your back injury?

Because he was deemed 80% disabled by the military and he has documentation of the injury and the surgery and because is substantially limits his daily activites, I believe he falls under the Americans With Disabilities Act.

Also, is it legal in Texas to ask information regarding his military status. I know in some states it is not.

This is an auto dealership with well over the legally required 15 employees.

I mean how many illegal questions can they ask and get away with it.

Those are not illegal questions, the company has a right to know if your husband is physically capable of meeting the job requirements. The only way such questions would be illegal is if they are irrelevant to the job requirements and you could somehow show discrimination based on a disability that significantly affects daily living activities.

 

[cbg]

I disagree that at least some of these were not illegal questions. I have no clue about the military question; while it can be illegal to take military service into consideration I've never heard of any state that made it illegal to ask the question; some employers give PREFERENCE to veterans. There was a story on the national news just last night about the program.

However, under the ADA an employer may ask the generic question, Can you perform the essential functions of the position with or without an accomodation, pre-hire; any questions about the specifics must wait until after an offer has been made.

OP, your husband needs to have a conversation with the EEOC.

 

[Multimom]

I was going to cut and paste the american's with disabilites act here to let the posters know it is illegal to ask those questions, but since poster #4 was aware, I'll skip posting that here.

FYI federal law makes it illegal for a prospective employer to ask the nature, extent, and severity of a disibilty. It is illegal for them to ask about medications you may or may not take and to what extent you require medications to manage a medical condition. For instance I cannot ask a prospective employee if they require insulin and how much even if they volunteer the fact that they are diabetic. It is illegal to ask if he/she is an american citizan ( you can ask are they legally able to work in this country only). And in some states, it is illegal to ask specifics regarding military services, such as dates, discharge type and discharge reasons etc. It is illegal to ask women, if they are married, if they have children or if they are planning to have children.

If you are an employer, you should be up on "questions you cannot ask a prospective employee." In your search engine, type in illegal interview questions. And up pops alot of sources that will let you know which questions you simply CANNOT ask.

 

[cbg]

Multimom, you're not absolutely correct on some of this. I will grant you, state law can vary, and you were correct about the disability questions.

However, technically it is not illegal to ask about marital status, family status, or plans to have children, barring a specific state law that says otherwise. What is illegal is taking that information into consideration when making the hiring decision, and even then only in states where marital or family status is a protected characteristic.

The smart way to do it is not ask the question at all, because if you don't, you can't be accused of using it to make the hiring decision. But it's the use of the information that is illegal, not the question itself.

Yes, I know I'm splitting hairs.

 

[ecmst12]

The law is a hair-splitting business sometimes...

 

[Multimom]

You are right technically its not illegal to ask, but I don't know too many people with that information in hand that can honestly say it doesn't affect their decision to hire.

I'm in management with a retail chain, and I had a prospective employee volunteer information that she has pretty severe diabetes. Now I can't ask her about the details of this, but the information was volunteered. And I can truthfully say that it has influenced my decision. Due to the fact that we often have to work several hours a day alone in our stores. If her diabetes is that severe it would create a tremendous liability on our company for me to hire her and leave her alone in the store. I can hire her and not leave her alone, but it has played a roll in my evaluation of our situation and what I can and cannot expect from her as a prospective employee.

So better not to ask than to try to ignore information.

 

[cbg]

I agree it's better not to ask - I said so. But your post said it was illegal, not unwise, and I thought it better to clear it up for the benefit of others reading the post. I don't like to have inaccurate information out there.

 

[Multimom]

Actually they are illegal: Here's what I found in a search.

Based on Title IIV of the civil rights act 1964
You cannot legally pose the following questions to any applicant.
National Origin/Citizenship Are you a U.S. citizen?
Where were your parents born?
What is your native tongue?

Age How old are you?
When did you graduate?
What’s you date of birth?

Marital/Family Status What’s your marital status?
Whom do you live with?
Do you plan to have a family? When?
How many kids do you have?
?

Personal How tall are you?
How much do you weigh?

Disabilities
Do you have any disabilities?
Please complete the following medical history.
Have you had any recent or past illnesses or operations?

Arrest Record Have you ever been arrested?

Military If you’ve been in the military, were you honorably discharged?

So in all actuality, it was illegal to ask about the nature of his disability, the severity of it and his dates of military service and the type of discharge.

Here are another set of "illegal questions" some are the same as above.

(01) What was your maiden name?

(02) When were you born?

(03) When did you graduate from high school?

(04) What is your race?

(05) Do you have physical or mental disabilities?

(06) Do you have a drug or alcohol problem?

(07) Are you taking any prescription drugs?

(08) Would working on weekends conflict with your religion? the asked him

(09) What country are you a citizen of?

(10) Have you ever been arrested?

(11) What language did you speak in your home when you were growing up?


Below are some specific questions my husband was asked in his interview. which are listed above as being illegal to ask.

(05) Do you have physical or mental disabilities?

They not only asked about his back injury but also the severity of it.

(06) Do you have a drug or alcohol problem?

They asked him point blank if he was addicted to the medication he takes for his injury."

(07) Are you taking any prescription drugs?

They asked him what medications he takes for his injury maintenance. They even stated "we like a drug free environment." DH's meds are prescribed by his physician, and monitored every 90 days. He's had the same physician for 15 years and does not Dr. hop to obtain more than he needs to manage his daily life. (BTW the meds he takes, he only takes at the end of the day and he does not drive after he has taken them. Which is why he usually waits until around 10 p.m. to take any medication at all.

(08) Would working on weekends conflict with your religion?

they asked him "what religion he was."

Were you honorabley discharged?

They asked if his discharge was medical disability.

So actually I think we have a valid complaint to file with the EEOC. The guy who recommended that he come in and apply even told him, they had major "concerns regarding his back injury and his medications."

Oh well, I guess we'll just wait and see what the EEOC has to say about it all when we talk to them next week.