KB Staffing LLC, a central Florida staffing firm, made unlawful pre-offer health inquiries of applicants in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission charged in a lawsuit filed Tuesday.

The lawsuit seeks compensatory damages, punitive damages and injunctive relief.

According to the EEOC’s lawsuit, KB Staffing from 2011 to 2013 asked all applicants to complete a paper application package with a detailed medical questionnaire before the company offered the applicant a position or placement. The suit also alleges that, although KB Staffing represented that it changed its process in 2013, it still required applicants to complete a medical questionnaire prior to any offer of employment in some instances after that date.

The medical questionnaires asked for sensitive health information, and included numerous disability-related questions, the EEOC claims.

“Congress recognized that prohibiting pre-offer medical inquiries was necessary to prevent applicants from being subjected to harmful and unfounded stereotypes on the basis of an actual or perceived disability,” said EEOC Regional Attorney Robert Weisberg. “As staffing agencies now play a large role in our nation’s workforce, eliminating any discrimination in their screening practices is increasingly important to ensuring that workers with disabilities have equal access to work opportunities.”

Eliminating barriers in recruitment and hiring is one of six national priorities identified by EEOC’s Strategic Enforcement Plan. These barriers can include exclusionary policies and practices, restrictive application processes, and the use of screening tools such as pre-employment tests, background checks and medical questionnaires.

The EEOC filed the lawsuit in the US District Court for the Middle District of Florida, Tampa Division (EEOC v. KB Staffing LLC, Case No. 8:16-cv-1088-T-27MAP, M.D. Fla.).