Dollar General has agreed to pay $1 million to settle a U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) lawsuit over soliciting Bessemer job applicants for their medical history and rescinding job offers based on their personal medical information.

The lawsuit stems from job offers at its Bessemer Distribution Center, which the EEOC says violated the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Genetic Information Non-Discrimination Act (GINA).

According to the suit, Dollar General required applicants to pass a pre-employment medical exam during which they were required to disclose past and present medical conditions of family members such as cancer, diabetes, and heart disease.

The EEOC also alleged that Dollar General used qualification criteria that screened out qualified individuals with disabilities.

“The ADA protects job applicants from being denied employment because of a disability as long as they can perform the job with or without an accommodation,” Regional Attorney for the EEOC’s Birmingham District Marsha Rucker said. “Employers cannot deny employment solely based on stereotypes about the abilities of individuals with certain impairments.”

According to the suit, Dollar General rescinded job offers to applicants with high blood pressure or less than 20/50 vision in one eye, even when those conditions did not prevent the applicants from safely performing the job.

The EEOC said it sued on behalf of 498 applicants who were required to divulge family medical history during the hiring process, and on behalf of another class of qualified applicants whose job offers were rescinded.

Dollar General discontinued the practice after the lawsuit was filed, according to the EEOC.

In addition to monetary relief, Dollar General must review and revise its policies and distribute them to all individuals involved in the hiring process, should they resume requiring medical exams. It must also require medical examiners not to request family medical history, consider the medical opinion of an applicant’s personal physician, and inform applicants how to request a reasonable accommodation if needed.

The decree also requires Dollar General to provide annual training to all individuals involved in the hiring process.

“Requiring individuals during the hiring process to answer invasive questions about medical conditions of their grandparents, parents or children violates GINA,” EEOC Birmingham District Director Bradley Anderson said. “An employer is prohibited from soliciting this information, regardless of whether the information is used to deny employment.”