Short Post - Proving Pretext in Comparing Physical Restrictions

Friday, the Seventh Circuit issued an interesting decision involving a Title VII race-based challenge to an employer's decision to terminate an employee who returned to work with a 25 pound lifting restriction.

The employee didn't seriously challenge the decision under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Instead, he claimed the termination was wrong because other white employees with supposedly lesser restrictions were given jobs he felt he should have been awarded. The argument failed because the employee's evidence failed to provide enough details about the restrictions on the other two employees. That was enough to sink the lawsuit.

The decision, however, is a good reminder for employers that the ADA is not the only means employees have of challenging an employer's decision that it cannot accommodate an employee's restriction. Even here, the court emphasized, race discrimination is not established merely because the imposed restriction was not accurate.