Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
by Nikki Hall and Eugene Park HR professionals regularly implement employee discipline and are adept at navigating the waters of reasonable accommodations for disabled employees. Mingling those two issues, however, can sometimes pull an employer in opposite directions when it’s responding to, for example, a chronically tardy employee suffering debilitating side effects from medication or […]
by Kara E. Shea Did you know the fastest rising category of claims filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is claims based on disability discrimination and/or failure to accommodate disabled employees? This isn’t surprising given that, under the expanded Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), virtually any nonminor/nontransitory impairment may be considered a qualifying […]
by Jane Pfeifle An employer made an incorrect assumption about a disabled applicant. When a court disagreed with the assumption, the employer paid the applicant more than $50,000. Lynn, Jackson, Shultz & Lebrun, P.C., the firm of article author Jane Wipf Pfeifle, was involved in this case. All facts are taken solely from the court’s […]
by Steven T. Collis Do an employer’s criticisms of a transgender employee’s unruly hair, disheveled clothing, poor writing and speaking skills, and negative client interactions support a discrimination claim based on her failure to conform to a gender stereotype? The U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado recently said no to that question. However, […]
by Jonathan R. Mook The American Medical Association (AMA) has officially designated obesity as a disease. In doing so, it explained that obesity is a “multi-metabolic and hormonal disease state” that leads to unfavorable outcomes like type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. The AMA’s action has focused renewed attention on the so-called obesity epidemic and […]
by Brandon Gearhart A recent decision from the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals (whose rulings apply to all Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, and Tennessee employers) illustrates the importance of the interactive process when making employment decisions about a disabled worker. The court returned a previously dismissed Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) claim to the lower […]
by Dinita L. James On February 26, the Phoenix City Council voted to amend its human relations ordinance to include lesbian, gay, and transgender persons as well as disabled individuals among the groups protected from employment discrimination. The 5-3 vote came after a nearly five-hour public hearing before an estimated 500 people in the city’s […]
by J. David Kutch A Palm Beach State College (PBSC) student received permission from the school to use a service dog trained to help her deal with the effects of her psychiatric disorders. However, she failed her classes and was escorted off the campus at times, apparently because two offices at the school had different […]
The law that amended the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was signed in September 2008, and although more than three years would seem sufficient to digest the change a new law brings, the regulations for the ADA Amendments Act (ADAAA) weren’t effective until May 24, 2011. So HR professionals and attorneys alike in many cases […]
Dan read the following timely column by California Employment Law Letter editor Mark Schickman and thought Oswald Letter readers would enjoy it. Dan will be taking off next week but will return to his weekly column the following week. by Mark Schickman You’ve got an employee, Charlie, who has always been a wild thing. Too […]