Offering Practical Guidance to Employers
Today, after a two year wait, the Department of Justice will publish its final rule amending the ADA regulations to incorporate the 2008 statutory changes set forth in the ADAAA, which took effect on January 1, 2009.
The ADAAA, signed into law by President George W. Bush, was Congress’s response to multiple Supreme Court decisions…
More than three years ago, we wrote that “when dealing with ADA claims relating to benefit plans, make sure to plot the coordinates for the ADA’s Section 501(c) ‘safe harbor.’” That harbor protects employers from liability for conduct that would otherwise violate the ADA if it were taken pursuant to a benefit plan so long…
A recently settled lawsuit brought by the EEOC against an Arizona trucking company highlights the importance for companies to always consider unpaid leave as a reasonable accommodation and to ensure their managers and supervisors are trained on all federal, state and local discrimination laws.
In September 2013, the EEOC sued Chemical Transportation, Inc., alleging that…
Recall the deaf applicant for a lifeguard position who was the subject of our post here. Most memorable there was the comment by the employer’s doctor to the applicant and his mom that “[h]e’s deaf. He can’t be a lifeguard.” The court there resuscitated the lifeguard’s ADA claim.
Now comes a deaf applicant for a…
A Coast Guard analyst unable to maintain regular and predictable attendance due to various debilitating conditions was not entitled to her requested accommodations of telecommuting and a later start time, according to a decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Doak v. Johnson, Sec’y US Dep’t of Homeland Security…
A plaintiff may not salvage her untimely ADA demotion claim by alleging that the statute of limitations began anew with each paycheck pursuant to the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, according to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. Davis v. Bombardier Transportation Holdings (USA) Inc. (Second Circuit, July 25, 2015).
The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay…
The situation is not that uncommon. An employer learns of a performance incident and the employee involved promptly requests FMLA leave. The employer then must decide how to address the incident while avoiding the risk of an FMLA or ADA claim. Will the law protect an employer that provides the employee FMLA leave while investigating…
Medicine being an inexact science, doctors’ notes concerning an employee’s ability to work with a particular accommodation are often tinged with optimism yet hedged by a less than definitive prediction about the likelihood of success. How much of a health care provider’s hope for change—some would say speculation or wishful thinking–must an employer accept when…
What better place to contemplate the ADA issue of whether coming to work is an essential function of a job than at the recent Disability Management Employer Coalition (DMEC) Compliance Conference, an annual three day seminar for those who toil in the depths of disability leave management and love every minute of it?
It all…
