Settlement Agreement:
· Save the Bay
· Legacy Tours
· Lackawanna County
EEOC Addresses ‘Return to Work’ Issues and Clarifies ‘Undue Hardship’ in New Guidance on COVID-19 and Antidiscrimination Laws
On April 17, 2020, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) once again updated its technical assistance for employers, titled “What You Should Know About COVID-19 and the ADA, the Rehabilitation Act, and Other EEO Laws.”
Previously, the EEOC (i) on March 17, 2020, issued initial guidance on COVID-19 in a series of Frequently Asked Questions (“FAQs”) (discussed here) (ii) on March 19, updated its publication titled “Pandemic Preparedness in the Workplace and the Americans With Disabilities Act,” to address issues specifically concerning COVID-19 (discussed here) and (iii) on April 9, updated its COVID-19 guidance to add FAQs focusing primarily on employers’ reasonable accommodation obligations under the ADA (discussed here).
In this latest update (“Guidance”), the EEOC’s attention remains fixed mostly on the ADA (and to a lesser extent on Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (“Title VII”)). The focus, however, is on “Return to Work” issues, which many employers are increasingly beginning to contemplate. The Guidance also provides additional guidance regarding reasonable accommodation and undue hardship in the era of COVID-19.
Army Sustainment, LLC Sued by EEOC for Disability
Army Sustainment, LLC violated federal law when it required employees to discontinue taking medications prescribed by their physicians to treat their disabilities as a condition of maintaining their employment, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charged in a lawsuit.
Working From Home Opens The Door To Employing People With Disabilities
Only 40% of adults in the United States with disabilities in their prime working years (ages 25-54) have a job, compared to 79% of all prime-age adults, according to the Brookings Institute, a nonprofit public policy organization dedicated to helping solve problems facing society. The conventional working environment can pose barriers to employment for people with disabilities. Liz Johnson, managing director and cofounder of The Ability People, a United-Kingdom based social enterprise, postulates that normalizing working from home opens the door to more people with disabilities to work. The company is a recruitment and consultancy firm that specializes in empowering people with disabilities.
NYC urged to create programs for severely disabled students
While students have moved to remote learning due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, Staten Island elected officials are calling on the city Department of Education (DOE) to set up programs for the borough’s most severely disabled students in District 75 schools and non-District 75 special needs schools.