After the jump, what employers can learn from a possibly botched drug test and the failure to hire a Rastafarian
(Or an excuse for me to make gratuitous True Romance references).
I tell you, folks.
When a school janitor, the plaintiff in this case, claimed that the school principal uttered the words in the lede above, I felt a stirring within.
Literally, the second those words (allegedly) formed on the principal’s lips, my Spidey Bloggy-senses told me that I’d be able to usher in the new year with a fine blog post.
Comin’ atcha after the jump…
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Whether you have a disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act — so, like, all of us — or not, work can suck. Bosses can be jerks.
But, if an employee with a disability requests a transfer away from a jerk boss, must the company provide it?
Find out after the jump…
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So just how did the employer snatch victory from the jaws of defeat after botching a diabetic employee’s request to work a modified schedule?
Find out after jump…
If you entered a time machine a few months ago and came out today to read this post, you missed a lot.
The Kansas City Royals made the World Series. Grammy Award winning rapper Eve wed entrepreneur Maximillion Cooper at Cala Jondal Beach in Ibiza, Spain. And a big-time Ebola scare.
Yeah, that Ebola scare was really something. But, it kinda just came and went, didn’t it? We haven’t had a new Ebola case in the U.S. in months, which makes the timing of Monday’s release of “Public Guidance on Protecting Civil Rights While Responding to the Ebola Virus” from the U.S. Department of Justice a bit off.
Just seems like common sense to me, especially where the employee seeking the accommodation would have to operate a motor vehicle.
Wait a minute!
Did an employee with a disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act really think it would be reasonable for his employer to allow him to take narcotic pain medication so that he could operate a company vehicle pain free?
More after the jump…
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[Because “The one about the guy who got fired and then requested a reasonable accommodation” isn’t clickbait enough].
More on the timing of ADA accommodation requests after the jump…
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is obsessed with wellness programs.
Or, as the EEOC likes to describe them “‘so-called’ wellness programs.” And not in a “yay, so-called wellness programs are super” kinda way.
No, in recent months, the EEOC has initiated litigation against companies (example, example, example) claiming that they violate the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Genetic Information Non-Disclosure Act by both requiring medical examination and penalizing employees who decline to participate.
The Americans with Disabilities Act requires that companies provide a reasonable accommodation to an employee with a disability, if doing so will allow the employee to perform the essential functions of the job.
The ADA contemplates a number of different types of reasonable accommodations. One such accommodation is a transfer into an open position for which the disabled employee is qualified. But what happens when there is no vacancy. Must an employer bump another non-disabled employee to accommodate the one with the disability?
As an Ohio federal court reminds us in this recent opinion that the answer is no, unless special circumstances exist:
Just go ahead, and kill them dead!
But before I get to that, I want to quickly plug our free event next week on November 12, 2014. I’ll give you four reasons to attend:
- Chai R. Feldblum, Commissioner, U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
- Richard F. Griffin, Jr., General Counsel, National Labor Relations Board
- Harry I. Johnson, III, Board Member, National Labor Relations Board
- Free breakfast
Sure, I’ll be on the panel too, but do any of you really want to see me? Besides, I wouldn’t want to destroy the mystique of our intimate blogger-reader relationship? I imagine many of you now breathless, picturing an erudite, chiseled, scholar; the blogging prose, typos, and grammar mistakes dripping from my two-typing fingers, as I….I’ll stop talking now.
Details on the event are here. A few tickets still remain. RSVP fast!
After the jump, back to reality. Kill! Kill! Kill! (the policies…)
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The Employer Handbook Blog