[nagdu] employment and guide dogs

[wcmerritt at gmail.com]

For those that work at a state or government agency, there may be
provisions for taking time off in getting a guide dog. At Texas state
agencies, such as the state training center I work at, they have such
provisions, stating that they would cover the first two weeks of my
training and then I had to use my personal time. I was prepared to
cover the whole thing, all 3 weeks, with personal time but when I
found out about the special "assistance dog training" category of
leave, I was very glad for it. That meant that I had to pick up the
last week of my 3 weeks of training with personal time, which was only
40 hours rather than the 120 hours I thought it would be. Perhaps
other state/governmental agencies have something like that as well.

Wayne

On 1/30/09, Pickrell, Rebecca M (IT) <REBECCA.PICKRELL at ngc.com> wrote:
> Exactly, which is why I'd like to know if there is (or why there isn't)
> legislation to handle events like that.
> Guide dogs are what's on topic for this list, but other
> technologies/lifestyle adjustments would also fall in.
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
> Behalf Of Nicole B. Torcolini
> Sent: Friday, January 30, 2009 1:23 PM
> To: NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users
> Subject: Re: [nagdu] employment and guide dogs
>
> Let's put a twist on this one. What if it were some other kind of
> mobility training? Would you get time off then? The truth of the matter
> is that people don't seem to understand that, although the dog is alive,
> it stills requires training like technology or any other type of aide.
>
> Nicole
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Pickrell, Rebecca M (IT)" <REBECCA.PICKRELL at ngc.com>
> To: "NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users"
> <nagdu at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Friday, January 30, 2009 8:58 AM
> Subject: Re: [nagdu] employment and guide dogs
>
>
> Linda's post got me to thinking about job retention/loss when a person
> needs to get a guide dog.
> I too had to struggle and eventually found a way to take time to get
> another dog without using up all my sick and vacation time.
> By contrast, when I had my baby, it was assummed and required that I'd
> take the full six weeks off.
> Angie's post mentions that it is "bending the law" to use FMLA to get a
> guide dog.
> So, why isn't there legislation to fill out the gap?
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
> Behalf Of Angie Matney
> Sent: Thursday, January 29, 2009 3:53 PM
> To: NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users
> Subject: [nagdu] employment and guide dogs
>
> Rebecca asked:
>
>>Why hasn't NFB tried to do something close to FMLA, where a person
>>cannot be fired from a job if he or she needs to do something to
>>mitigate a disability, i.e. getting a guide dog, learning to use a
>>piece of technology, what have you?
>
> Can you clarify what you mean?
>
> It is my understanding that an employer would have to accommodate you if
> you needed to go train with a guide dog, unless accommodating you would
> pose an undue hardship for the employer. "Accommodating" doesn't mean
> that the employer would have to provide paid leave, though I know that
> some employers do provide a certain amount of paid time off for people
> to receive guide-dog training.
>
> I have heard of instances where people invoked FMLA to train with a
> guide dog. I personally would not feel comfortable doing so, since it's
> bending the law a bit. But it has been done.
>
> Angie
>
>
>
>
>
>
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