The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has charged a Clearwater, Fla., company with violating the Americans With Disabilities Act by firing an engineer because he did not produce medical documentation for an old medical condition.
According to the complaint filed in the U.S. District Cout for the Middle District of Florida, American Tool & Mold, which designs and manufactures injection molds for plastics, terminated Michael Matanic because he did not provide a medical release relating to a six-year-old successful back surgery.
In so doing, the EEOC alleges, the company fired Matanic because it regarded as having a disability.
According to the EEOC’s suit, at the time of his termination, Matanic was in good health and had a recent medical examination showing no physical limitations on his ability to perform his job as a process engineer.
The EEOC further charged that Matanic actually performed his job with American Tool and Mold for two months without incident or injury while he attempted to obtain the outdated medical documentation that it had required as part of its allegedly discriminatory post-offer medical screening process.
The EEOC filed suit after first attempting to reach a voluntary settlement out of court.
This blog post was highlighted in the Dec. 14 weekly roundup of the Ohio Employer Law Blog.
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