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An employer is not required to alter its attendance policy to allow erratic, extended and indeterminate leave as a “reasonable accommodation,” according to a federal district court in Texas. Accordingly, the employer did not violate the Americans with Disabilities Act when it fired an employee for violating the company’s attendance policy, the court ruled in […]
By Robert Teachout Changes in job duties and increased responsibilities that an employee claimed made his job “untenable” were not sufficient to be an adverse action under the ADA or the ADEA, the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals recently ruled. The court held that the increased duties did not constitute a material change in […]
A law firm did not violate the Americans with Disabilities Act by terminating an assistant who could no longer perform heavy lifting, a federal appeals court ruled. Heavy lifting was an essential function of the employee’s job and her inability to do so could not reasonably be accommodated, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals […]
Employers are not required to grant an employee’s desired accommodation, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has confirmed. Instead, they need only provide one that is effective. The court reached that conclusion in Noll v. IBM, No. 13-4096-cv (2nd Cir. May 21, 2015) when it determined that IBM had accommodated a deaf employee by […]
Financial wellness incentives of up to 30 percent of coverage costs would be allowed under the Americans with Disabilities Act, based on rules proposed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. This long-awaited guidance generally defers to HIPAA’s nondiscrimination rules, as amended by health care reform, in determining whether a wellness program is permitted by […]
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking addressing how employer wellness programs can be in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The EEOC announced the proposed rule on April 16, and it was published in the Federal Register on April 20. Members of the public have until […]
The U.S. Supreme Court on March 25 vacated and remanded an appeals court ruling that the Pregnancy Discrimination Act does not require employers to accommodate pregnant employees. In Young v. UPS, the 4th Circuit held that UPS did not violate the PDA by limiting light-duty accommodations to employees: (1) injured on the job; (2) disabled as […]
A manager’s comment has allowed an employee to keep her disability discrimination claim alive, according to a recent court ruling. In Manon v. 878 Education, LLC (No. 12-cv-3476 (March 4, 2015)), a worker alleged that she was fired because her daughter has a disability; her claims survived summary judgment because she was able to show that her […]
Rite Aid Corp. will soon appeal a $2.6 million jury award for a pharmacist who is afraid of needles, according to recent court filings. A federal jury determined in January that the pharmacist’s phobia was a disability covered by the Americans with Disabilities and that he was fired because of that fear. Christopher Stevens, who […]
Do you require mandatory drug testing as a condition of employment? Many employers do, but have you considered whether a mandatory drug testing policy might be discriminatory?