Hopefully, your business never has to address a situation where an employee is suffering from progressive memory loss and cognitive decline. But, suppose one of your employees informs you that they have early-onset Alzheimer’s disease.
How should the company respond?
Before discussing the jury verdict, I’ll tell you a little about how we got here.
Continue reading
Last night, I went shopping on Amazon for a new stool. Continue reading
I won’t bury the lede, which I’ll quote from the Fourth Circuit decision I read last night. Continue reading
You’re not a doctor.
(Unless you’re a doctor.)
So don’t act like one when deciding which of your employees may be a direct threat to others at work.
(Unless you like defending Americans with Disabilities Act claims). Continue reading
The Americans with Disabilities Act requires an employer to provide reasonable accommodation to qualified individuals with disabilities who are employees or applicants for employment. However, the ADA does not require an employer to assist a person without a disability due to that person’s association with someone with a disability. Still, an employer cannot discriminate against an employee or applicant because of that person’s association with someone with a disability.
It’s called associational discrimination.
Federal anti-discrimination laws, such as the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act, help ensure that individuals with disabilities have the same rights and opportunities at work as everyone else.
Both laws require employers to provide individuals with disabilities with reasonable accommodations if needed to perform the essential functions of their jobs. However, when a failure-to-accommodate claim gets litigated, the onus is on the employee to establish that they could perform their jobs, even with reasonable accommodations.
A few months ago, I blogged about a lawsuit in which the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission alleged that an employer denied a deaf job applicant’s accommodation request and terminated his candidacy because verbal communication and hearing were job requirements for the position in a remote setting.
Late last month, that case settled for $150,000.
But writing a check is only the beginning for this employer. Continue reading
Wait, Eric! Didn’t you blog about this yesterday? Continue reading
The Employer Handbook Blog