Justice Department Developing Disability Training For Police
Plans are in the works at the U.S. Department of Justice to roll out law enforcement training focused on people with disabilities.
Deaf Drivers Sue Police Over Lack of Sign Language Interpreting
New Jersey Law Journal
The New Jersey Attorney General and two local police departments are accused in Trenton, N.J., federal court of violating the Americans With Disabilities Act for failing to provide sign language interpreting for deaf motorists during traffic stops.
Two More ADA Lawsuits Filed By The EEOC: Guess Which Companies Got Sue?
Mondaq News Alerts
The First New Case
In the first case the defendant is a company which operates a North Carolina nursing home which allegedly hired a woman as a cook and dietary aide "who has a physical impairment that limits her use of the left side of her body."
As the EEOC alleges, she was quickly asked about her left arm by her supervisor and told the supervisor that "that she did not have the full use of her left arm, but that she was still able to perform her job duties." Not long after she was told that the supervisor did not believe that she could perform her job duties without the full use of both arms, and she was fired
An EEOC attorney said that "An employer cannot terminate an employee based solely on uninformed assumptions about her ability to work simply because of a disability."
Second Lawsuit
In the second EEOC lawsuit, a leading dialysis clinic in Sacramento run by a Nashville-based non-profit fired a nurse who had worked there for 14 years after she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
The company allegedly "had a policy of firing employees who are unable to return to work 30 days after they have exhausted their 12 week leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act," and made no exception for plaintiff, who had taken medical leave in order to have mastectomy surgery and chemotherapy treatments.
Moreover, the company allegedly did not "explore any accommodations for [her] regarding a possible extension of her leave but instead told her that she would have to reapply for her job."
Although she did reapply, she was never rehired.
An EEOC attorney was quoted as saying that "Given the ADA's mandate, I would urge employers to be flexible concerning leave extensions if it causes no undue hardship. [Plaintiff] had over 30 years' experience in dialysis treatment and really wanted to work. Our investigation showed that she only needed two more months to return to work. Why sacrifice a valuable employee with a good record over an arbitrary time limit?"
Takeaway: Better wake up medical and healthcare folks — the EEOC is licking its chops!
EEOC says reasonable accommodation required for all pregnant workers
Lexology
On July 14, 2014, without the fanfare of a public meeting, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission published Guidance on its website addressing the treatment of pregnancy under Title VII. Most significantly, the Guidance adopted a novel position that under the language of the Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978 (“PDA”), all pregnant workers are, as a practical matter, entitled to a “reasonable accommodation” as the term is understood under the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”), as amended. The EEOC’s position has never been adopted by any Circuit Court of Appeals. Indeed, the few courts that have reviewed the issue have rejected it.