[nfbmi-talk] employers beware

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Employers Beware: EEOC Stepping Up Disability Discrimination Enforcement

 

Ten of the 22 lawsuits filed or settlements reached by the EEOC in May included allegations of disability discrimination. That’s a .455 batting average,

which is none too shabby in anyone’s book.

June 2, 2014

Jon Hyman

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Related Topics:

Legal Compliance,

Disabilities,

Discrimination and EEOC Compliance,

Policies and Procedures,

Legal

KEYWORDS

ADA /

Disabilities /

disability discrimination /

eeoc /

Jon Hyman

print/20516-employers-beware-eeoc-stepping-up-disability-discrimination-enforcement

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Last month,

the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced that

it was seeking “public input on potential revisions to the regulations implementing Section 501 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.” That Act governs employment

of individuals with disabilities by the federal government, and was the Americans with Disabilities Act’s precursor. Without explanation, the Rehabilitation

Act’s regulations impose an obligation on federal agencies to be “model employers” of individuals with disabilities; the EEOC is seeking to revise those

regulations to provide a detailed explanation of that “model employer” obligation.

 

On the heels of that news, 10 of the 22 lawsuits filed or settlements reached by the EEOC in May included allegations of disability discrimination. That’s

a .455 batting average for the ADA, which is none too shabby in anyone’s book. Some of the issues addressed by the EEOC in the past month include:

List of 7 items

• A

$72,500 settlement

with an Akron, Ohio, medical transportation services company, which fired an EMT-paramedic with multiple sclerosis instead of providing additional leave

as a reasonable accommodation.

• A

$110,000 settlement

with Norfolk Southern Railway Company, which medically disqualified a track maintenance worker because of degenerative disc disease without doing an individualized

assessment of whether he could perform the essential functions of his job.

• A

$90,000 settlement

with a Tennessee nursing home facility, which terminated an HIV-positive nurse.

• An

$18,000 settlement

with an Alabama athletic apparel retailer, which fired a legally blind sales clerk (who lost his full use of his sight while serving in the Army) without

any consideration of whether an accommodation, such as a magnifying glass or a new computer monitor, might be reasonable.

• A

lawsuit

claiming a Wisconsin energy company fired an wheelchair-bound employee instead of providing his requested reasonable accommodation of an automatic door

opener.

• A

lawsuit

claiming a Tennessee steel company refused to hire an applicant for a maintenance position after learning through a pre-employment medical examination that

the applicant took prescription medications for an anxiety disorder and high blood pressure.

• A

lawsuit

claiming a Connecticut electrical contractor refused to hire a dyslexic carpenter, without first exploring any possible reasonable accommodations for his

disability.

list end

What do all of these cases have in common? They all involve employers that failed, in some way, to engage an employee or applicant in the interactive process

to determine if he or she could perform the essential functions of the job with, or without, a reasonable accommodation. Instead, the employer appears

to have made snap judgments based on the individual’s disability and related stereotypes.

 

Disability discrimination is very much on the EEOC’s radar. Is your business sufficiently protected? Answer these questions—

List of 4 items

• Do you have a reasonable accommodation policy?

• Do you have accurately written

job descriptions?

• Do your managers and supervisors know what the

interactive process

is, and how to engage in it?

• Have you trained your employees on disability awareness and reasonable accommodations?

list end

 

Unless you have answered “yes” to each of these important questions, your business is exposed to potential disability-discrimination issues. Considering

how closely the EEOC is looking at these issues, is this risk is one your business wants to take?

Hyman_resize75

 

Jon Hyman is a partner in the

Labor & Employment group

of

Kohrman Jackson & Krantz.

He is a Workforce contributing editor. Comment below or email

editors at workforce.com.

For more information, contact Hyman at (216) 736-7226 or

jth at kjk.com.

Follow Hyman on Twitter at

@JonHyman.

You can also follow him on

Google Plus.