Trump settlement cleanses Apprentice application of ADA-offending language
On a slow news day about a month ago in St. Louis, there was a front-page story about a lawsuit filed against Trump and the producer of the Apprentice TV show.
The suit was brought by a quadriplegic St. Louis attorney who had been paralyzed during a college fraternity hazing incident and then gone on to law school — showing admirable toughness and ambition that would seem to qualify him well for going up against the Donald.
The complaint alleged the show’s application was discriminatory because it cautions all candidates to “be in excellent physical and mental health” and “meet all physical and psychological requirements,” effectively ruling out disabled people from applying for the Apprentice program.
The attorney-plaintiff’s winning sound bite: “To be a corporate executive, I don’t think you need to be able to run 100 yards or run a flight of steps or anything of that nature.”
That’s the old news (February story here)
Now, we have news of a settlement.
“Apprentice” Discrimination Suit Settled” by Charlie Amter
The deal, which was sealed earlier this week, involved no payout by Mark Burnett Productions or Trump Productions LLC and no admission of any wrongdoing on their part. Instead, the online application for potential Apprentice contestants has been changed to encourage the disabled to apply.
“All applicants who believe they meet our criteria, including persons with disabilities, are welcome and encouraged to apply to be a participant,” the new wording says.
This case illustrates the importance of careful wording in applications and interviews under the ADA.
I would say that under the ADA, an employer can have “physical and psychological requirements” for a job — provided they are job-related and involve essential functions of the job, and it is clear that any necessary reasonable accommodation will be taken into account.
But “excellent physical and mental health” is truly necessary only for relatively few jobs (and probably not that of a corporate executive, as the St. Louis attorney pointed out).
Further, no useful function is served by using such broad statements at the outset of the application process.
Applicants with specific health issues that may legitimately preclude employment for particular jobs can and should be screened out later. Thus avoiding the “chilling” effect on potential applicants with disabilities that the St. Louis attorney correctly identified.
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