ADA

Accommodate pregnancy-related restrictions

08/27/2020

Pregnant employees may develop complications that temporarily affect their ability to perform their jobs. Some employers mistakenly believe that because pregnancy and most related complications are transient conditions, pregnant workers don’t qualify for reasonable accommodations under the ADA. Not true!

EEOC opioid advice focuses on job retention

08/13/2020

The EEOC has issued two new publications designed to address issues related to employing people who legally use or illegally abuse opioid drugs.

Individually assess each disability claim

08/06/2020

The ADA has been on the books for 30 years, but some employers still don’t understand one of the law’s basic requirements: They must conduct an individualized assessment every time an applicant or employee claims a disability.

If family member is ‘high risk,’ must you accommodate?

07/16/2020

An employee [does not want to come into work/wants to work from home/wants a leave of absence] because he or she lives with someone who is at high risk for coronavirus complications. What do we do?

Prepare for ADA suits driven by health fears

07/09/2020

Simultaneous health and financial crises have given us all plenty to fear. Surely you are doing your best to prove to employees that your workplace is safe. Most will be assured. However, a small subset of workers may remain paralyzed by safety concerns.

EEOC guidance covers how covid affects ADA, other laws

06/18/2020

The EEOC has posted an updated and expanded technical assistance publication addressing questions arising under the federal equal employment opportunity laws related to the coronavirus pandemic.

You, not employee, choose accommodation

06/11/2020

Some disabled employees couch their ideas about the accommodations they want as demands, not suggestions. That’s when it pays to remember: The employer, not the employee, gets to choose the reasonable accommodation.

Offer easy accommodations … or settle for $3.3 million

05/28/2020

When in doubt about how to handle an ADA request, sometimes the best bet is to offer a temporary accommodation. Make sure the employee understands the accommodation is temporary and not an admission that he’s entitled to it. Then set a review date.

Fed contractors must use new disability form

05/21/2020

The Labor Department’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs has updated the form federal contractors must use to allow job applicants to voluntarily self-identify that they have a disability.

OK to discipline for leaving work ‘feeling sick’

05/14/2020

If a worker tells her supervisor she’s having a flareup of a serious health condition and must leave, that may invoke the FMLA, the ADA or both. But a run-of-the-mill, “I feel sick and am going home” declaration isn’t protected activity.

ADA