ADA

Call lawyer about worker’s perceived disability

01/07/2011

It may seem like the obvious move: If an employee has a medical condition that makes it impossible to do her job safely, then it makes sense to terminate her. Not so fast! Consult your attorney before you fire her.

Update job descriptions to include new duties

01/03/2011

If you don’t have accurate and up-to-date job descriptions, you’re probably courting trouble—especially if an employee develops a disability and wants a reasonable accommodation. That’s because what an employee considers a job’s essential functions may not jibe with your assessment.

Feel free to punish boorish misconduct, even if employee blames it on disability

12/21/2010

Disabled employees sometimes think they can use their medical conditions to get away with misbehavior. That’s not true. Employers can and should punish behavior that is disruptive, wrong or breaks company rules, even if that behavior may be tangentially related to a disability of some sort.

Cooperation, patience can stop ADA claims

12/21/2010

Sometimes, supposedly disabled employees try to play their employers by piling on new, incessant demands for reasonable ADA accommodations. For better or worse, it’s often best to just go along, especially if the accommodation won’t cost much. It could keep you out of court.

Disabled worker can’t do OT: Can we lay her off?

12/16/2010

Q. We’ve been accommodating a disabled employee by letting her skip overtime. Her doctor says she needs extra sleep. But now we need to lay off several employees and start requiring mandatory overtime. Can we terminate those employees who can’t do overtime? That would include the disabled employee.

West Palm eatery settles ADA HIV-by-association lawsuit

12/13/2010

When managers at Callaro’s Prime Steak and Seafood Restaurant learned that an employee’s relative was HIV-positive, it asked the worker to take an AIDS test. Now the West Palm Beach restaurant is paying the employee $10,000 to settle the resulting EEOC disability discrimination lawsuit.

GINA’s effect on wellness programs

12/09/2010

To help you better understand your obligations under the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008 (GINA), we’ve assembled these resources:

Court orders medical record release in EEOC case

11/30/2010

Here’s a case that might make some employees think twice about going to the EEOC with a failure-to-hire complaint. A court has ruled that employers being sued by the EEOC have the right to review job applicants’ medical records—including mental health notes.

Physical therapy not always sign of disability

11/30/2010

Employees who need to take time off to attend physical therapy to deal with an injury may believe they’re disabled under the ADA. And they assume the time off must be a reasonable accommodation. That’s not necessarily true.

Don’t be so quick to say ‘no’–seriously consider every ADA accommodation request

11/24/2010

Managers must resist the temptation to reject out of hand any employee request for reasonable accommodations. To do so would be a big mistake. The ADA requires employers to engage in an interactive process to determine if an employee is entitled to an accommodation and what that accommodation should look like.

ADA