GM case cited in hearing on discrimination bill
GM case cited in hearing on discrimination bill
Automotive News | January 29, 2008 - 2:38 pm EST
WASHINGTON — Carey McClure, an electrician, told a congressional committee today that General Motors rescinded a job offer to him in 2000 because he has a form of muscular dystrophy.
McClure testified that he sued GM for discrimination but lost because the U.S. Supreme Court had narrowed the scope of what qualifies as a disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act.
The law was enacted in 1990 to protect people with disabilities from discrimination in public services and accommodations and in employment.
“Well, you can’t have it both ways. Am I disabled or not?” McClure said in his statement. “If I am, then the ADA should have been there to protect me. If I’m not, then I should be working with my father and my brother at GM right now.”
The House Education and Labor Committee held the hearing on a bill that proponents say would restore the original intent of the Americans with Disabilities Act. The GM case was cited as one example of why the legislation is needed.
McClure, formerly of Griffin, Ga., said GM offered him a job at its Arlington, Texas, assembly plant in late 1999. He said he passed written and hands-on tests, quit his former job and sold his home.
During a physical at the Texas plant in January 2000, a GM doctor asked him to raise his arms above his head. He said he could not but had learned to compensate, using ladders, hydraulic lifts and other means. But the job offer was quickly withdrawn, McClure said.
GM spokesman Greg Martin says the automaker opposes the legislation because it would discard definitions, finally settled in law, that enable both employers and employees to know when the ADA applies.
