EEOC Suit Challenging Union Pacific’s Color-Vision Test Advances

Union Pacific Railroad Co. lost its dismissal bid in a suit by the US government alleging discrimination against 21 locomotive engineers and conductors who were removed from service after failing the company’s visual-acuity test.

The “Union Pacific-developed ‘light cannon’ test” isn’t one of the 12 color-vision tests the Federal Railroad Administration has designated as acceptable, the US District Court for the District of Minnesota said.

The 21 claimants identified in the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s October 2023 suit all failed that test, and the agency says the company took adverse action against them because of a disability or perceived disability, ...