High court rules against employee in disability case

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court ruled Monday that the Americans with Disabilities Act does not entitle people to jobs that might jeopardize their health.

The court rejected arguments from a man who argued he should be able to decide for himself whether to take the risk of working in an oil refinery, where chemicals might aggravate his liver ailment.

The court, in the 9-0 ruling, again limited the 1990 ADA and said Mario Echazabal could not win back his job at a Chevron plant in El Segundo, Calif.

The justices reversed a lower court ruling in favor of Echazabal and sent the case back for further review.

Writing for the court, Justice David H. Souter said the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission struck the right balance between protections for workers and employers when it wrote regulations that applied in Echazabal's case.

"The EEOC was certainly acting within the reasonable zone when it saw a difference between rejecting workplace paternalism and ignoring specific and documented risks to the employee himself, even if the employee would take his chances for the sake of getting a job," the court said.

'Completely barbarous'

The case is a major victory for employers, who argued they could be forced to hire people with grave illnesses or debilitations, and then face possible lawsuits if those workers were further harmed or died on the job.

The court has not been friendly to lawsuits asserting worker rights under the ADA. In six cases involving the workplace, the court has ruled against the worker each time. Earlier this term, the court made it more difficult for employees to demand special treatment if they suffer partial disabilities such as carpal tunnel syndrome.

At oral argument in Echazabal's case, the justices seemed troubled by the idea that a company's hands would be tied if a worker insisted on doing a job that might lead to serious illness or death.

"We want employers to care about their employees," an exasperated Justice Anthony M. Kennedy told Echazabal's lawyer. "You want employers to take a position that's completely barbarous."