Legal Question in Employment Law in California
I applied for a trucking company. On my first day of class, we are required to see their company doctor for a pre-employment physical and drug test. The doctor refused to continue with the exam because i wrote down on the pre-examination form that i had tuberculosis 20 years ago. He disqualified me and said that if i wanted to come back, i needed to see my doctor or go to a clinic to get examined for tuberculosis, then fax him the results. He said that i needed to prove to him that i will not infect anyone and that i am clean. I went to a clinic which specializes in airborn diseases and got a chest xray. The xray came back negative. The clinic doctor gave me a clean bill of health. I then faxed the results of the xray to the trucking company's doctor. He still refused to continue with the physical even though the test results were negative. He explained to me that he needed a letter from the doctor that examined my xray stating that I am healthy enough for the job requirements, when in the beginning, all he wanted to know was if I can infect anyone. I spoke to the doctor that examined my xray and explained to her that the company doctor needed a letter stating that I was healthy enough for the job requirements. She said "how can I determine if you are healthy enough for the job when it's the company doctor's job to determine that through a pre-employment physical. My job is just to determine if you have tuberculosis or not". I then called the trucking company's doctor and explained to him what the doctor at the clinic told me and he still refused to continue with the physical. I fulfilled my end of the bargain by proving that I will not infect anyone. He still refuses to this day to continue the physical.
2 Answers from Attorneys
I do not see that you have a remedy that would force the doctor or the company to continue with the physical.
I would ask the doctors to call each other and have the trucking company's doctor explain what he wants. It may simply be a question of miscommunication.
Best of luck to you.
You have no 'right' to employment, or fair treatment, so unless your case is actually within the rules of the 'discrimination' laws, you would have no grounds for any legal action. You described your condition as being 'healed' or fully recovered from a prior disease. Therefore, they aren't discriminating against a permanent life-altering handicap condition. The closest you come to a fair argument is that the doctor is discriminating against a mistakenly 'perceived' handicap and risk to the company. That is really a weak argument. Without something further, I would not take your money to file such suit. In many situations, I might advise hiring an attorney to 'rattle their cage' by hinting at suing. But, do you really think a perspective employer is going to hire someone that does that??
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