Can Er test one Ee for suspected vision impairment

Kolette

We have a long-term employee, male 58 yrs old. He drives a tow motor in some very tight areas of the facility. In the past several months, he has had 1-2 minor accidents and some near misses. Lately his coworkers and supervisors have expressed concern to upper mgmt regarding safety. They feel this employee has a vision impairment. The worker does appear to have some sort of disability with his one eye. (Some say it's a glass eye from a bar fight years ago...), but that is all speculation. This employee is well-liked. We are very confident that nobody is making false reports and like I said he has had a few accidents over the years - one just last year.

For safety and liability reasons, can we require him to get a vision test to verify that he has the range of peripheral vision required to safely operate the tow motor around coworkers and facility customers? We would like to send him for an eye test, but can we single him out? If so, on what basis? We are really stumped on this and any help would be greatly appreciated.

davids

The first question that comes to mind is: If you did send him for an eye exam, do you have a validated standard against which you will judge him? What is the acceptable range of peripheral vision? Are all of you employees performing similar duties being held to the same standard?

I would approach this as a performance issue. During discussion on his performance, you can ask if there are any health issues causing the accidents. If he says no, I would leave it at that and hold him accountable for his performance. If he says yes, then you can ask for medical documentation. But, again, do you have standards against which you will judge his ability to do the job?

sonny

I agree with David. . focus on performance. Do you have a safety committee or anyone who reviews accidents? If this occurred here, the accidents would be reviewed in depth and recommendations made. . .Have you thought about re-training?