• The HR Specialist - Print Newsletter
  • HR Specialist: Employment Law
  • The HR Weekly

ADA

American Airlines offers equity stake to settle ADA bias lawsuit

01/09/2018

American Airlines, along with its subsidiary Envoy Air, has settled a class-action disability discrimination suit for $9.8 million.

Remind bosses: Take care when addressing disability’s effect on employee performance

01/09/2018

Supervisors must be careful about how they handle discussions about employee disabilities. Comments the boss considers innocuous might feel very different to a disabled worker, and that can lead to needless litigation.

When can we require medical exams? Are we allowed to make an employee pay for a job-related medical exam?

01/02/2018

Q. May employers require medical examinations of applicants and employees?

Yes, coming to work is an essential function

01/02/2018

Under the California Fair Employment and Housing Act, workers with disabilities are entitled to reasonable accommodations. But once their employers have accommodated them, they still need to meet the essential functions of their jobs.

ADA: Extended leave not always reasonable

01/02/2018

Draconian workplace rules that call for automatically firing workers who run out of leave have consistently been held to violate the ADA. That may be changing, at least for employers in Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin.

Employment law by the numbers: Know which laws count

12/20/2017

Businesses must stay abreast of an alphabet soup of federal laws—ADA, ADEA, FMLA and so forth—each with its own requirements. Further complicating matters, most states have their own laws that override the federal requirements. To comply, you first must know which laws apply to your business.

Be careful rescinding offer after medical exam

12/18/2017

Employers that withdraw a job offer following a pre-employment medical examination risk being sued. Counter by being able to point to a specific task or set of tasks the exam showed would be impossible for the applicant to perform.

How long must a light-duty reassignment go on?

12/13/2017
Q. An employee returned after a work-related injury with doctor restrictions. We put her in a light-duty job, but it’s been more than 90 days with no end in sight. She works a full eight-hour day, but not in the job we hired her for. What can we do?

Prepare to explain necessity of medical exams

12/13/2017

Employers that require all employees to undergo medical exams either annually or following injury or illness may have a hard time justifying their policies under the ADA.

ADA interactive accommodations process not required—if employee isn’t disabled

12/06/2017

Employers are supposed to engage with disabled workers and applicants in the ADA’s interactive accommodations process in order to arrive at reasonable accommodations. But what if the employer refuses—and it turns out the employee wasn’t actually disabled?