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ADA

Employer gets to choose ADA accommodation

12/07/2015

The ADA requires employers and employees to discuss potential reasonable disability accommodations with each other. However, the bottom line is this: The employer gets to choose which accommodation to implement, not the employee. As long as the chosen accommodation is reasonable, the employee’s desires take no precedence.

Is nicotine addiction a disability?

11/12/2015
Q. An employee says she must be allowed to take smoke breaks. She claims she is so addicted to nicotine that she has a disability, and that therefore I must accommodate her requirements. If I don’t allow her to take smoke breaks, can she sue me?

Think twice before suddenly withdrawing ADA accommodation that’s been working

11/12/2015
Once you have an accommodation in place for a disabled employee, don’t suddenly take it away. If the accommodation has been working, that may spur an ADA lawsuit.

Drivers ed: Take it up with the DOT first

11/12/2015
A truck driver who is required to maintain U.S. Department of Transportation certification can’t sue his employer for disability discrimination if terminated without first pursuing remedies through the DOT. Until he’s done so, he isn’t “qualified” for the position and can’t sue for alleged disability discrimination.

Asking your employees medical questions: What’s legal, what’s not?

11/12/2015
The ADA states that employers “shall not make inquiries of an employee as to whether such employee is an individual with a disability or as to the nature and severity of the disability, unless such examination or inquiry is shown to be job-related and consistent with business necessity.” What does that mean?

Bosses: Send accommodation requests to HR

11/04/2015
Here’s a simple tip that can save your organization time and legal troubles in the long run: Train all your managers and supervisors to tell employees asking for disability accommodations to take up the matter with the HR department. Don’t let managers go it alone with their own accommodation efforts.

EEOC sues San Diego clinic for ADA violation

10/21/2015
A surgical scrub technician has alleged Sharp Healthcare withdrew a job offer because it regarded her as disabled when she was not.

Let the pros in HR handle that! Bosses shouldn’t meddle in FMLA, ADA issues

10/21/2015

Some managers think they can handle employees with disabilities on their own. That’s never a good idea. Someone in HR should oversee every aspect of disability accommodations. Leave management out of it—other than requiring every manager and supervisor to report immediately potential disabilities to HR. Otherwise, things can go badly wrong, as they did in one recent case.

Beware subtleties of ‘regarding as disabled’

10/08/2015

Employers can be liable under the ADA if they “regard” someone as disabled—that is, assuming and acting as if the person has a disability. That’s true whether the worker is disabled or not. Telling an employee she should pick up medical forms to apply for disability benefits and sending her home until she does apply probably means the employer regarded the employee as disabled.

When accommodation is impossible, it’s OK to discharge disabled worker

10/05/2015
Not every disability can be accommodated in a way that enables an employee to perform the essential functions of his job. Sometimes, the disability simply can’t be accommodated. When that’s the case, you may terminate the employee. If he sues, you must be ready to show what the job’s essential functions are and that it simply isn’t possible for the disabled employee, given his specific disabilities, to perform those functions.