Hospitals Must Consider Accommodation Requests in Pandemic
Doctors and nurses on the front lines of the novel coronavirus with health conditions of their own can request “reasonable accommodations” under the Americans with Disabilities Act, and employers must consider them despite the pandemic, according to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
That doesn’t necessarily mean managers have to immediately reshuffle critically needed workers in the midst of an unprecedented health crisis, though. The ADA requires accommodations that don’t exert an “undue hardship” on the employer, which moving a doctor or nurse to different duties arguably would be. Health care providers short on personal protective equipment might not have a way to accommodate an immunocompromised worker.
But hospitals and other health care settings can’t evade the law’s requirements by citing the crisis, the EEOC said in updated guidance, after receiving almost 500 virus-related employment law questions.
“All rules are not off even in a pandemic situation,” said Michael Volpe, a partner at Venable LLP who co-chairs the firm’s labor and employment practice group.
The EEOC guidance made clear that time is of the essence in processing these requests, particularly for health-care first responders. It told employers not to let the process hamper temporary accommodations if they’re immediately warranted.
“Some employers may provide requested accommodations on a temporary basis for example, for one or two weeks, while the employer is discussing the request more fully with the employee or waiting to receive medical documentation,” said Sharon Rennert, an EEOC attorney focused on the ADA.
5th Circuit revives EEOC's ADA claims on behalf of Vantage Energy worker
A U.S. appeals court on Friday rejected Vantage Energy Services Inc’s claim that a former employee’s delay in filing a formal disability bias complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission precluded the agency from suing on his behalf.
A three-judge 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel unanimously ruled that an initial intake questionnaire the worker, David Poston, filed months before he lodged a verified charge with the EEOC was enough to put Vantage on notice of his claim that he was unlawfully fired after suffering a heart attack.
EEOC Answers Employers’ COVID-19-Related Questions
COVID-19 and the ADA
- Employers may take the temperature of all employees who will be physically entering the workplace. Employers may also ask such employees whether they have COVID-19 or symptoms associated with COVID-19 or whether they have been tested for COVID-19. If an employee refuses to have his or her temperature taken or answer COVID-19 related questions, the employee may be barred from physically entering the workplace. Employers generally may not make these inquiries of employees who are teleworking.
- If an employer wishes to only ask a particular employee if he or she has COVID-19 or only require that the particular employee have his or her temperature taken, the employer must have a reasonable belief, based on objective evidence, that the person might have COVID-19.
- Rather than asking an employee whether or not a member of the employee’s family has COVID-19, the agency suggests that employers should ask whether the employee has had contact with anyone who the employee knows has COVID-19.
- Employers may notify public health authorities if they learn that an employee has COVID-19. However, when doing so, employers should not disclose the employee’s identity.
- Supervisors who are working remotely should strive to comply with the ADA requirement that medical information be stored separately from regular personnel files. If they are not able to do so, they should still take efforts to safeguard this information to the greatest extent possible until it can be appropriately stored.
- The EEOC’s position is that: (1) COVID-19 satisfies the direct threat standard, but (2) it is unclear at this time whether COVID-19 qualifies as a disability under the ADA. The agency anticipates providing clarification on this issue in the future.
- Employers generally do not have to provide a reasonable accommodation to an employee who lives in the same household as someone who, due to a disability, is at a greater risk of illness if he or she contracts COVID-19.
- During the pandemic, employers may wish to consider providing requested accommodations on a temporary basis while considering the accommodation request.
- During the pandemic, employers may learn that employees can satisfactorily perform essential functions while working remotely. Therefore, an employee who has previously been denied teleworking as a reasonable accommodation because of concerns that the employee will not be able to perform essential functions from home, may be entitled to teleworking as a reasonable accommodation after the pandemic has ended.
Commentary: Retailers must make websites fully accessible — or face ADA lawsuits
As the coronavirus pandemic sweeps America and shelter-in-place orders drag on, online shopping, once a convenience, is now a necessity.
But for many of our parents and grandparents, the web is full of stumbling blocks. The vast majority of websites do not meet even the most basic accessibility standards laid out by the World Wide Web Consortium’s Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), which has become the de facto standard businesses must adhere to in order to fulfill their obligations under the Americans With Disabilities Act, the landmark 1990 ruling which guarantees that all businesses provide “full and equal enjoyment of the goods and services” they offer to all Americans, including those with visual, auditory and other impairments.
Why Businesses Should Care About ADA Website Accessibility
Following up on my previous post about the relationship between technology and autism services, I want to revisit my discussion with Daryn Harpaz, an ADA website accessibility and compliance consultant and CEO of ZenythGroup. During this extraordinary time of sheltering in place due to COVID-19 , it is particularly pertinent to focus on the accessibility of technology, which is powering all of our online interactions.