Articles Posted in Disability

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Eric, we have an employee who needed four weeks off for hip surgery. We provided it. After the surgery, they requested three more months off to have a second surgery. We provided it. Then, they experienced even more complications that required even more surgery, and their doctor told us they couldn’t work with or without accommodations for an additional three to six months. Do we have to accommodate this too?Continue reading

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Suppose that several employees complain that a coworker is creating a “hostile work environment” because they were afraid that she (the coworker) was going to report them (the employees) for engaging in unspecified misconduct in the workplace.

Can the employer respond by mandating an Employee Assistance Program (EAP) referral as a condition of the coworker’s continued employment?

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The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) forbids discrimination against employees or applicants because of genetic information. Specifically, Title II of GINA prohibits using genetic information in making employment decisions, restricts employers from requesting, requiring, or purchasing genetic information, and strictly limits the disclosure of genetic information.

While GINA has been in effect for over ten years, it gets very little attention. Employees bring fewer discrimination charges under GINA than any other federal antidiscrimination statute that the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission administers. But that doesn’t make it any less important or expensive when violations arise.

Check this out. Continue reading

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A little over five years ago, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission sued an employer for disability discrimination. It claimed that the company, which temporarily granted a request to allow an employee with night blindness to work an earlier shift to avoid an evening commute, should have agreed to extend the accommodation. Its failure to do so violated the Americans with Disabilities Act, the EEOC alleged. Continue reading

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A company fired one of its employees just ten days after learning about his disability. Although the proximity between the two doesn’t confirm that the employee’s disability motivated the employer’s decision, some other vital factors led a federal appellate court to overrule a lower court’s decision in favor of the employer, thus setting the stage for a jury trial on the plaintiff’s Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) claims.

I’ll explain why. Continue reading

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