Pubdate: Fri, 10 Oct 2003
Source: Spartanburg Herald Journal (SC)
Copyright: 2003 The Spartanburg Herald-Journal
Contact:  http://www.goupstate.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/977

BUSINESSES HAVE A RIGHT TO NOT HIRE EMPLOYEES WHO HAVE BROKEN THEIR RULES

The federal government should not force employers to rehire workers who 
have violated their trust and broken their rules.

But that's just what the Supreme Court is being asked to do. A suit heard 
by the court this week seeks to use the Americans With Disabilities Act to 
force companies to rehire employees who were fired for drinking or using 
drugs on the job.

Joel Hernandez lost his job with a missile manufacturer in 1991. He had 
showed up for work smelling of alcohol, and a drug test showed he had been 
using cocaine.

In 1994, Hernandez reapplied for his job, saying he had recovered from his 
substance abuse problems. But his former employer said it had a policy 
against rehiring people who had broken the company's rules. It refused to 
rehire him.

Now Hernandez and his lawyers want the government to force the company to 
give him his job back. The Americans with Disabilities Act demands it, they 
claim.

Nonsense. The government should not force companies to retain or rehire 
people guilty of misconduct on the job, people who have violated the 
company's standard for employee conduct. The government also has no right 
to force the company to hire someone who has been a safety risk in the past.

Think of the liability that would be forced on employers if the court ruled 
in favor of Hernandez. If someone were fired for being drunk on the job, 
the company has acted responsibly. If that employee comes back after having 
gone through some treatment, the company could be forced to rehire him.

But suppose the employee reverts back to his old habits. But this time, 
before he gets fired again, he causes an accident that hurts or kills 
another employee. The company could be held liable for hiring someone 
managers knew had a history of showing up for work drunk.

It is no stretch of the imagination to think that the same court system 
that forced the company to rehire the worker under the Americans with 
Disabilities Act would then hold the company liable for knowingly employing 
a safety risk.

Employers should be able to hire the best people they can as long as they 
don't discriminate. Hernandez was not discriminated against. He was simply 
held accountable for his past actions. The Supreme Court should discard 
Hernandez's claims.
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MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart