Employee possible safety risk - what to do?

Karla · January 2003

I have an employee who started in July 2002. During the first week of his employment, he became very incoherent and disoriented during his shift. When talking to him about it, he disclosed that he is diabetic and due to the new job and the physical requirements, his insulin was out of whack. He went to his doctor and they adjusted his insulin and he came back saying he was good to go. By hearsay, he's had a few of these episodes since then, but he "officially" had another episode two days ago. We brought him in and talked to him again and told him we are very concerned about his safety, etc. He gave us a possible reasoning as to why this may have happened and he was going to go to his doctor again yesterday. We are horribly concerned about his safety here, we do heavy manufacturing and work with rail cars, large machinery, and manlifts. One of these episodes could happen at anytime and he could be seriously hurt or killed, or even hurt someone else when these episodes come on. He says he usually can tell when he needs to adjust his insulin, but there are obviously times he can't. Any advice as to where we can go from here, or do we just pray for the best and hope for no more more episodes.

Gillian · January 2003

I think that you should aggressively resolve the ADA components of this problem. Is he a qualified disabled person under the ADA and if so, what do you need to do to satisfy your obligations? Since the danger to self and others is significant the longer that this takes to resolve the more risk that you assume. Document your steps and the decisions that you make. You might want to contact a labor attorney for assistance.

System · January 2003

Regardless of whether he's disabled, I think you can send him to a dr. for a fitness-for-duty evaluation. That might answer your questions (or raise more).

James Sokolowski
Senior Editor
M. Lee Smith Publishers

Trinity · January 2003

My sister's fiancee applied for a position with Budweiser as one of their drivers, and was told he would have to have a CDL (Commercial Drivers License) in order to fit the qualifications for the position. In order to have that, he of course had to have an approval from his doctor, but was unable to get it because he too is diabetic. Sometimes, there are certain tasks that cannot be done due to medical liabilities. They are now looking to get him a warehouse position as an accomodation. Would this gentlemen be operating any machinery or such that would require him to have a special license or such? If so, then your problems may be taken care of in the medical examination if he is denied for that. If not, then you may have to look at ADA accomodations as previously stated..

BReid · January 2003

Having recently experienced a similar nightmare, I recommend that you work with a good employment law attorney. By consulting an attorney we steered clear of pitfalls during our most frustrating moments. In the end the ee was terminated for below standard work performance, however, we are not worried about a lawsuit (this ee had bragged about helping others to sue companies for ADA violations)from our actions. Good luck to you on resolving this.

Don D · January 2003

To answer another part of your question....Where do I go from here? I suggest your company immediately put in place a pre-employment drug screen/physical requirement if you don't have one. Surely this would have come up in the guy's medical evaluation at a clinic. Unless he simply mentioned it and indicated all was well. If he is insulin dependent and you do have a pre-employment routine already in place and the doctor approved him and referred him back to you for placement on a hazardous manufacturing job, I find that perhaps troubling or at least worthy of a conversation with the physician to be sure everybody is on the same page with this moving forward. A discussion about an accomodation or perhaps a 'failed physical' might have been in order. jmo

Eliant · January 2003

I agree with Gillian. I also ask do you have a pre-employment physical policy in place? If not then get started on one. Make sure the medical group you choose is well aware of the working conditions.
You could provide him with a role description, ask him to take this to his physician and have his docotor work with you on this matter.
Good luck

bsa · January 2003

Wasn't there a case last year involving Chevron that decided an employer [u]could[/u] deny employment to someone based on "endangerment to self?" It involved exposure to chemicals that caused liver damage?

I would give the ee a job description with a factual description of the working environment to take to his doctor. If the doctor believes that the job is not hazardous to the ee's health, you can get a second opinion on your dime. Otherwise, stay alert and try not to treat the ee "as if" he is disabled. It could be as simple as a medication adjustment.

Karla · February 2003

Thanks for all the advice. We do have pre-employment physicals and he indeed passed the test. Since my last posting, this employee has had another diabetic episode. From there I am having him go to a fit for duty assessment with our company doctor and having his medical records sent to our doctor as well to assess the situation. What is scary is in the meantime the employee researched his "conditions" related to his diabetes and found out many different things that his "diabetic specialist" never bothered to share with him. So, we'll see what happens. I doubt after all of his episodes any doctor will sign off that he does not pose a significant safety risk, but I will leave that to the medical professionals to decide.

Employee possible safety risk - what to do?

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