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FMLA & ADA: Two peas in a pod
I love my readers.
Like my youngest daughter with a pile of peas, my readers devour HR-compliance wonk and nuance. Continue reading
I love my readers.
Like my youngest daughter with a pile of peas, my readers devour HR-compliance wonk and nuance. Continue reading
My decision to sit at the computer and begin blogging at 10:48 PM on a Sunday has backfired on me, for sure. Continue reading
Yep, we’re gonna continue yesterday’s discussion of how stereotyping and false assumptions can create yuuuuuuge Americans with Disabilities Act problems for employers. Continue reading
There are three types of disabilities under the Americans with Disabilities Act:
It’s the “regarded as” prong that I’m going to address today with a little help from the EEOC and Yo Gabba Gabba. Continue reading
Do employee-leave issues and ACA woes have you feeling like this?
Well, next month, my friends at Kistler Tiffany and I have got your back. We’re presenting two free, live seminars to help you tackle your ACA, ADA, and FMLA issues.
The biggest impact on employers, when the Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act took effect on January 1, 2009, was to downplay whether an employee actually had a disability, and get businesses focusing more on whether there existing a reasonable accommodation that would permit an employee to perform the essential functions of the job.
Many management-side employment lawyers joked that, under the ADAAA, everyone had a disability. That’s how easy it was to establish.
Well, except maybe a cleft palate.
A few months ago, I was waxing poetic about plutonium, how to establish essential job functions, and quality-testing diet scrapple. What got into me?
Now, I’ve got a cautionary tale, in the form of a recent federal court opinion, to help you good folks navigate away from some of the Americans with Disabilities Act traps. Lest you like litigation and lawyer bills.
By Versageek (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], via Wikimedia Commons
Allowing an alcoholic to attend AA to remain clean and sober? That works.
But, accommodating an alcoholic who “falls off the wagon,” gets a DUI, and needs time off from work because he is incarcerated? Not so much.
No, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals didn’t say, “Oh, word?” But, it did just toss a $2,600,000 jury award in favor of a pharmacist in an Americans With Disabilities Act case.