Image by diapicard from Pixabay In 2020, the Americans with Disabilities Act turns 30. President George H.W. Bush signed it into law in 1990 to ensure civil rights for individuals with disabilities. Chia-Yi Hou at The Hill published a nice 30-year ADA recap here. The ADA is much more than…
Articles Posted in Disability
“Smokers and other nicotine users need not apply.” Is that even legal?
By Augustus Binu, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link Because I’m a lawyer, I’ll say it depends. Except, I won’t charge you 0.1 hours of my time to say it. Instead, I encourage you to go to SHRM’s website and read this article from Roy Maurer. Roy addresses a decision by the…
ADA accommodations don’t require eliminating essential job functions, like coming to work punctually.
Image Credit: https://freesvg.org/1550658029 (Public Domain) Regular, in-person attendance is generally critical to performing one’s job. So, when an employee exhausts her twelve weeks of leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act only to miss another 33 days of work (resulting in a 59% absentee rate), one’s job security may…
Can a demotion be a reasonable accommodation under the ADA?
Downturn Direction Banks Trend Down Symbol Arrow (Maxpixel.net: License to use Creative Commons Zero – CC0) In the context of an employment discrimination lawsuit, when I think about a demotion, I’m also thinking of retaliation. The plaintiff with a disability was also thinking the same thing in this recent federal court…
2,650,000 more reasons to provide a chair to an employee with a disability who needs one
Image by Tariq Abro from Pixabay I’m pretty sure that I’ve blogged about this before. But, maybe not. So, either what I’m about to tell you bears repeating, or I’m only going to say this once, so pay attention. If an employee with a disability requests a chair, stool, or…
Courts don’t second-guess non-discriminatory business decisions. Even the tough ones.
Image by mohamed Hassan from Pixabay There are times when employers have to make difficult decisions impacting the workplace. Today, I’m going to talk to you about one of them involving an employee who attempted suicide and, subsequently, pressed the company to return him to work. The plaintiff in this…
You’re worried that an obese applicant may later develop diabetes. Can you refuse to hire him?
Renée Gordon (FDA), Victovoi [Public domain], via Wikimedia CommonsLast night, I read this recent Seventh Circuit opinion about a man who applied for a job with a railroad. The job required some fairly physical work; namely, climbing and working on and around heavy equipment. The company’s policy was not to…
Can your business prevent Oscar from living in a trash can without violating the ADA?
Image Credit: Grouch (Joker Parody) – SNL (YouTube) Let’s pretend that you operate a sanitation company. One of your employees — let’s call him ‘Oscar’ — tells you that he would like to take a multi-week sabbatical to learn more about his job and spend some time living in a…
No, a late request for a workplace accommodation doesn’t excuse prior performance issues
Image Credit: Photofunia.com (https://photofunia.com/results/5d92b3c0089f7a3a938b457d) Often, when I present at HR events on reasonable accommodations under the Americans with Disabilities Act, I’m asked about how to deal with disciplining employees who wait until after the performance issues arise and the progressive discipline follows to request an accommodation. Specifically, do you have…
Four mistakes that you and your managers make when firing employees
sailko [Public domain], via Wikimedia CommonsWell, maybe not you and yours. But, read on just in case. Over the weekend, I read this federal court opinion involving a woman’s claims that her former employer violated both the Americans with Disabilities Act and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of…