Articles Posted in Disability

ADA leave requests may be verbal or written, just not telepathic

January 9, 2014 | by Eric B. Meyer

Sorry, Aquaman. You’re SOL, son.

But Aquaman does love to get down to MGMT, I’m told. So here you go…

Same goes for the plaintiff in this case — the telepathy part, not MGMT — in which the employer had a leave policy which dictated that employees may take up to six months of leave if unable to perform his/her job with or without reasonable accommodation. After that, it’s sayonara, unless prohibited by law, or if the employee requests a leave extension.

Telling an employee her “big fat ass needs to concentrate on losing weight” is not discrimination

December 17, 2013 | by Eric B. Meyer

Let’s talk (alleged) big butts and discrimination after the jump…

(Sir Mix-a-Lot is gonna be feelin’ this post).

Must an employer ask if a disability is causing poor job performance?

December 9, 2013 | by Eric B. Meyer

You’ve got an employee with performance issues. Big time! Initially, rather than fire her, you make fun of her behind her back put her on a series of performance improvement plans. But, that doesn’t result in — oh, what’s the word I’m looking for? — improvement.

So, you fire her.

Ah, but here’s the little wrinkle for today’s post. The poor performer experienced frequent migraine headaches and struggled with pain and other symptoms caused by endometriosis. As a result of these conditions, she frequently requested medical leave under the Family Medical Leave Act, which you afforded her.

Given the poor performer’s medical issues, before firing her, did you have an obligation to engage in an interactive dialogue with her, consistent with the Americans with Disabilities Act to determine whether her health issues caused her performance issues?

The answer follows after the jump…

Pregnancy isn’t a workplace disability, but how about morning sickness?

December 3, 2013 | by Eric B. Meyer

An employee-plaintiff who claims that she was discriminated against under the Americans with Disabilities Act due to her pregnancy alone, will lose her ADA claim 10 times out of 10. This is because pregnancy is not a disability under the ADA.

But what if that same employee plaintiff with an ADA claim alleges that the discrimination relates not to her pregnancy, but rather to her morning sickness?

Hmmm….

The answer after the jump…

Welcome to the Employment Law Blog Carnival: Hollywood Villains Edition

November 20, 2013 | by Eric B. Meyer

Welcome everyone to the Employment Law Blog Carnival. What you’ll find after the jump is the best, recent posts from around the employment-law blogosphere all organized around a common theme.

So, yeah, we need a theme.

[Lousy blog rules]

Two years ago, we spun some tunes with the “Employment Law Blog Carnival: Jukebox Edition.” That featured such hits like “If You Love HIPAA, Let Me See You Twerk It” and a Sex Pistols B-side hidden track about social media policies.

Last year, I went with the “Employment Law Blog Carnival: Hollywood Casting Call Edition.” To the casual internet user, my writing in that post may have seemed, oh, what’s the word, “deranged”? Here is an actual quote:

Stuart Rudner blogs “When trust has been destroyed: Just cause for dismissal.” The Canadian adaptation, “Haste Makes Waste,” is set for release next year and stars Dustin Diamond as Wayne Gretzky. No, not that Wayne Gretzky. Just some guy who plays a total screw-up and happens to have the same name as the “Great One,” which, in turn, helps him to keep his job.

But, to you, my fans, you recognize it as something more than the product of some bad salmon I ingested just before a marathon two-finger typing session. It’s gold!

So, mainly since my brain is fried from churning out this drivel — free drivel — every weekday, let’s stick with the Hollywood theme. How about the Employment Law Blog Carnival: Hollywood Villains Edition? Hannibal Lechter would approve, I’m sure. You may even see him after the jump.

So grab some liver, fava beans and nice chianti and click through to read the carnival offerings…

* * *

The ADA still requires a plaintiff to show that he has a “disability”

November 11, 2013 | by Eric B. Meyer

When the Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act (“ADAAA”) went into effect on January 1, 2009, the changes to the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”) emphasized construing the definition of “disability” to provide broad coverage of individuals to the maximum extent permitted by the terms of the ADA.

In other words, nowadays we’re all disabled.

However, if you’re going to take your employer to trial on a disability discrimination claim, you still need to show a “disability.”

An employer is not required to change supervisors as an ADA accommodation

October 17, 2013 | by Eric B. Meyer

Work got you anxious and depressed? Well then, you may be disabled under the Americans with Disabilities Act. But if you think that the ADA requires your employer to transfer you away from the supervisor who is giving you a hard time, think again.

In Lu v. Longs Drug Stores (opinion here), Ms. Lu claimed that her supervisor discriminated against her based on her national origin and then retaliated against her after she complained. She further alleged that the abuse caused her to develop anxiety, depression, shingles, and diabetes.

On Ms. Lu’s behalf, her treating physician requested that the employer transfer her away from her supervisor. The employer declined and, ultimately, terminated Ms. Lu after she missed over a year of work to treat for her various disabilities.

NY Court: Indefinite leave may be a reasonable accommodation for disabilities

October 14, 2013 | by Eric B. Meyer

New York City.

As Jay-Z and Alicia Keys sang, it’s the “concrete jungle where dreams are made of. There’s nothin’ you can’t do.”

That includes taking indefinite leave as a “reasonable” accommodation under the New York City Human Rights Law.

Must an ADA requested accommodation correlate to an essential job function?

October 10, 2013 | by Eric B. Meyer

To receive the protections of the Americans with Disabilities Act, an individual with a disability must be qualified to perform the essential functions of the job with or without reasonable accommodation. Absent undue hardship, an employer must provide a reasonable accommodation.

So, you’d think that the ADA would require a link between a requested accommodation and an essential job function. Well, not so much according to this recent decision from the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, a case in which the Attorney General’s office refused to accommodate one of its attorneys who requested a parking spot close to the office.

Noting that the text of the ADA specifically contemplates “making existing facilities used by employees readily accessible to and usable by individuals with disabilities,” without any indication that an accommodation must facilitate the essential functions of one’s position, the Fifth Circuit held that the ADA does not require a nexus between the requested accommodation and the essential functions of the position.

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