Foundation fighting back over ADA lawsuits, wants to force oversight
East Valley Tribune
The controversial AID Foundation is striking back at the state Attorney General’s Office, seeking an unusual court order to force the state agency into inspecting businesses periodically for violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Union Twp. fire chief, nurse feted for service-dog program
Cincinnati.com
The Union Township fire chief and a flight nurse with Air Care – who just happen to be married – have won a statewide award for their work to allow service dogs to accompany disabled people being transported in helicopters.
The Ohio Governor’s Council on People with Disabilities honored Chief Stanley Deimling and nurse Diana Deimling with its Accessible Medical Services Award.
Security firm allegedly discriminated against disabled security officer
The Pennsylvania Record
A disabled security officer has filed suit against his former employer and a client for alleged disability discrimination and wrongful termination after the client determined his disability posed a liability in performing his duties as a security guard and the former employer terminated his employment.
Michael Butera filed a complaint April 19 in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania against St. Moritz Security Services Inc. and SKF USA Inc., alleging that they violated the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Can Your Employees Sue For Caregiver Discrimination?
Mondaq News Alerts
Despite the fact that there is no federal law specifically protecting the rights of caregivers, employees have been successful in winning cases rooted in other recognized legal theories such as gender and disability discrimination, and some have been men.
One father settled a case against his employer who refused to allow him to work from home to care for his premature son. His suit alleged that mothers had been allowed to do so, and he was able to argue gender discrimination.
A female police officer requested to be relieved from patrol duties while she was breastfeeding because she was unable to wear a bulletproof vest. The court considering the matter held that breastfeeding was a pregnancy-related medical condition and allowed the case to proceed under the Pregnancy Discrimination Act.
Employees have also filed claims under the Americans with Disabilities Act alleging that they were treated less favorably by their employers due to the need to care for a disabled family member. On this theory of "associational discrimination" an individual could, for example, argue that he was not hired because his wife is disabled, and the prospective employer concluded that his need to care for her might impact his work performance and attendance.
You Want More Time Off How To Deal With Employee Disability Leave Requests
Mondaq News Alerts
Disability discrimination claims filed against employers hit an all-time high in 2015. Seeing this trend, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission set out to improve employer education on what is required under the law and to provide them with a resource document to help assist them as they grapple with leave requests from employees.
The Americans with Disabilities Act prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability in employment and applies to employers with 15 or more employees. It requires employers to provide disabled employees or applicants for employment with reasonable accommodations unless doing so would cause an undue hardship.
Reasonable accommodations are changes in the work environment or changes in process or how things are done that allows an employee with a disability to perform the essential functions of their job. New Hampshire’s Anti-Discrimination Statute also recognizes disability discrimination and applies to employers with six or more employees.
A reasonable accommodation may include observing a weight or lifting restriction, providing someone with an ergonomic keyboard, or allowing periodic breaks. It may also include providing employees with leave from work or modifying a company’s leave policy for an employee with a disability.
Employers may use the EEOC’s new resource document when considering leave requests by employees as a reasonable accommodation under the ADA. The Employer-Provided Leave and the Americans with Disabilities Act address key topics that include:
· Access to leave under an employer’s leave policy: Employers must provide employees with access to leave “on the same basis as other similarly-situated employees.” Policies may require all employees to provide documentation to substantiate the need for leave -— like a doctor’s note.
· Granting leave as a reasonable accommodation: Employers must provide employees with leave as a reasonable accommodation. This includes providing unpaid leave to an employee with a disability so long as doing so does not create an undue hardship for the employer. An employer is not required to provide paid leave beyond its paid leave policy. Employers may also not penalize an employee for taking leave as a reasonable accommodation.
· Communication after an employee requests leave: This is also referred to as the “interactive process.” Employers must engage in the interactive process after a disabled employee requests leave, or additional leave, for a medical condition. Employers must treat the request as a request for a reasonable accommodation. As the EEOC explains, the interactive process is “a process designed to enable the employer to obtain relevant information to determine the feasibility of providing the leave as a reasonable accommodation without causing an undue hardship.”
· Communication during leave and prior to return to work: Employers should continue to engage in the interactive process if the disabled employee seeks additional leave due to a medical condition. Employers may also ask for information from the employee as to the leave and the employee’s return to work.
· Maximum leave policies: Employers will be found in violation of the ADA if they enforce maximum leave policies. While employers may have policies that set a maximum amount of leave the employer will allow, employers may need to grant exceptions to disabled employees and allow them additional leave beyond the maximum as a reasonable accommodation.
· Return to work and reasonable accommodation (including reassignment): Employers will be found in violation of the ADA if they require employees to be 100 percent recovered or have no restrictions before they can return to work. Employers should continue engaging in the interactive process if employees return to work with restrictions. This allows discussion as to reasonable accommodations that will allow an employee to perform the essential functions of the job or consider reassignment to a vacant job position for which the employee is qualified.
· Undue hardship: Employers may determine whether granting leave, or additional leave, is an undue hardship. Factors that may be considered include impact on the employer’s operations and ability to serve customers, impact on co-workers and duties of job, whether intermittent leave is predictable or unpredictable, whether there is flexibility on when leave is taken, frequency of the leave, and amount and/or length of leave.
Telework Under The ADA & Other Nondiscrimination Laws
JD Supra
A workforce that adheres to a traditional work style, or a consistent eight-hour workday in the same location – with no offsite work or interaction with business colleagues or customers – is increasingly becoming a relic in many settings. Whether at a coffee house, commuter train, airport lounge, or soccer field, transactions, communications, and decisions take place on a range of devices away from the brick-and-mortar jobsite.
While there may be many practical advantages for companies considering implementing flexible work, employers should be cognizant of whether telework will be a good fit for their company culture and the needs of their market or audience. In addition to these practical considerations, employers should also consider how agile work and employee requests to work from home implicate obligations under employment laws – specifically the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and other non-discrimination laws.
Judge rules against ADA lawsuit, lawyer
Ahwatukee Foothills News
A federal judge imposed sanctions against a controversial attorney and his co-counsel, citing their “bad faith behavior” in their dealings with a defense attorney after they filed a “boilerplate” suit accusing a property company of violating the federal Americans with Disabilities Act.
Could Testing Obese Truckers Weigh Down Industry?
Bloomberg BNA
The permissibility of sleep apnea testing for drivers believed to be obese was the subject of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit’s Oct. 12 decision in Parker v. Crete Carrier Corp., 2016 BL 339384, 8th Cir., No. 16-1371, 10/12/16. In what appears to be a first-of-its-kind ruling, the court held that a North Dakota long-haul truck driver’s Americans with Disabilities Act rights weren’t violated when he was benched for refusing to be tested for the condition.
“Obesity is the primary anatomic risk factor for obstructive sleep apnea,” the Eighth Circuit noted. The court said that Crete Carrier Corp.’s body-mass-index-based testing fell under an exception from the ADA’s general prohibition against medical inquiries that may uncover a worker’s disability.