After the Applicant Begins Work or Training
After the applicant begins work or training, the employer or training provider may ask disability-related questions and/or require medical exams if the questions/exams are job-related (or related to the training) and consistent with business necessity. Again, the information obtained must be kept confidential and stored separately from any other information about the person, and access to the information must be limited, as discussed later in this lesson.
Generally, a disability-related inquiry or medical examination of an employee may be "job-related and consistent with business necessity" when an employer "has a reasonable belief, based on objective evidence, that:
- an employee's ability to perform essential job functions will be impaired by a medical condition; or
- an employee will pose a direct threat due to a medical condition."
Disability-related inquiries and medical examinations that follow up on a request for reasonable accommodation when the disability or need for accommodation is not known or obvious also may be job-related and consistent with business necessity. In addition, periodic medical examinations and other monitoring under specific circumstances may be job-related and consistent with business necessity.
Sometimes this standard may be met when an employer knows about a particular employee's medical condition, has observed performance problems, and reasonably can attribute the problems to the medical condition. An employer also may be given reliable information by a credible third party that an employee has a medical condition, or the employer may observe symptoms indicating that an employee may have a medical condition that will impair his/her ability to perform essential job functions or will pose a direct threat. In these situations, it may be job-related and consistent with business necessity for an employer to make disability-related inquiries or require a medical examination.
