If you haven’t done FMLA training for your supervisors, hopefully, this post will motivate you to get some on the calendar. The case I want to share with you today involves a lab tech with several disabilities. As they worsened, she was often late to work due to her disabilities.…
The plaintiff in the case I read last night worked in Hawaii as a customer service representative. She was a clinically obese woman with a long history of diabetes and hypertension, resulting in physical limitations related to neuropathy in her hands and feet. However, her job involved sitting at a desk, taking…
The Americans with Disabilities Act bars employers from firing someone because they have a disability. It also requires employers to provide workplace accommodations to otherwise “qualified” individuals with actual disabilities unless going so would create an undue hardship. Someone who is “qualified” can perform the job’s essential functions with or…
I read on the U.S. Department of Labor website that unions help employees improve the workplace with “enhancements” such as “flexible scheduling, protections against harassment and safer working conditions – that improve the quality of jobs and workers’ well-being.” However, a union non-profit that touts itself as a provider of help to workers…
There’s a reason that they don’t teach “clairvoyance” in HR certification courses. (Although, it would be nice to have it to avoid some hires, amirite?) Attendance issues lead to termination of employment. The plaintiff in the Sixth Circuit decision I read last night had attendance issues. Bad ones. Beginning in…
Unless you run a dental practice, I can’t imagine why a fetching, toothy smile would be a job qualification. But, apparently, a large chain of gas/convenience stores has that policy. In writing. (Although, there is an exception for people with a disability.) I can only imagine the job interview: “Hey,…
Yesterday, I told you about the EEOC’s new resource document for assisting individuals with hearing disabilities. Today, I’ll tell you how the Second Circuit Court of Appeals breathed new life into the failure-to-accommodate claims of a deaf individual who worked as a case manager for a city’s Human Resources Administration…
If you’re an employment law nerd like me, in addition to being the envy of your neighborhood, you also know that the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission does not shy away from bringing failure-to-accommodate claims on behalf of deaf individuals. Look at all of them! With limited resources at its…
The Americans with Disabilities Act prohibits employers from discriminating against qualified individuals because of a disability. A qualified individual can perform the job’s essential functions with or without a reasonable accommodation. Often, an individual with a disability will approach a supervisor or HR, identify their limitations, and ask for help.…
A recent Eighth Circuit decision helps show how an employer can discharge its obligations to engage in the Americans with Disabilities Act interactive process in good faith. Remote work during flare-ups The case involves a plaintiff with multiple sclerosis who worked in customer service at a hospital, the defendant. After…