Northwest Airlines Agrees to Conduct Individualized Assessments in Epilepsy, Diabetes Cases

This article (and this one) reports on a settlement into which Northwest Airlines and the EEOC recently entered. The EEOC had claimed that Northwest violated ADA Title I by engaging in a blanket policy of refusing to hire people with epilepsy or diabetes for baggage-handling and aircraft-cleaning positions. Under the agreeement, Northwest commits to engaging in an individualized analysis of the qualifications of applicants with these conditions (something the airline maintains it's been doing all along). Northwest also agrees to pay a total of $510,000 to 28 individuals whose offers of employment were withdrawn after the airline discovered they had seizure disorders.