EEOC v. Old Dominion Truck Line: Why November 2012 Cannot Come Quickly Enough

File under: Just can't make this stuff up.


The federal government has sued a major trucking company for its firing of driver with an admitted alcohol abuse problem.

Alcoholism is classified as a disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act, the suit maintains, and therefore employees cannot be prohibited even from driving 18 wheelers due to their histories of abuse.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which filed the suit against the Old Dominion Freight Line trucking company on August 16, noted that while “an employer’s concern regarding safety on our highways is a legitimate issue, an employer can both ensure safety and comply with the ADA.”

So, the management, who work for the stockholders, and answer to the insurers and departments of transportation in each state their trucks operate, are obligated to pay for rehab of an admitted alcoholic truck driver, and then put him behind the wheel again? How's about a spell of rehab, a year of employment loading trucks, and and then termination with six month's severance. That gives our boy some nineteen months to get/stay sober, and decide what to do for his next job. In the meantime, please, somebody, pull his commercial driving license! Please!

Almost all drunks relapse. Many go to residential treatment centers two or three times before putting together a long stretch of sobriety. This guy has a looong way to go, and very little chance of success, seeing as he would have been the person who went to the EEOC and cried about his maltreatment. How'z that for taking responsibility for one's recovery?

What could possibly go wrong? When that fatal crash occurs with that driver, does the surviving family get to sue the EEOC for demanding he be put behind the wheel?

Note to self--stay well behind or ahead of Old Dominion trucks in the future. That driver may be behind the wheel.