Tag: disabled employees

Workers with Disabilities Benefit from Tight Labor Market

One of the silver linings of the current labor market turmoil employers are facing is that those who are looking for work have found greater opportunities than perhaps at any other point in their careers. Notably, that includes groups of traditionally marginalized individuals, such as those with disabilities. New Opportunities Emerging “People with disabilities have […]

Report Quantifies ‘Low Cost, High Impact’ of Accommodating Disabled Workers

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) announced a new report finding that nearly half of workplace accommodations made for people with disabilities can be implemented at no cost to employers, and of those that do incur a one-time cost, the median expenditure has decreased when compared to previous reports to only $300. According to the DOL, an […]

ADA

Taking a Load Off: EEOC Cracks Down on Unlawful Accommodation Policies

A Texas-based employer has agreed to pay $2.65 million to settle a lawsuit in which the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) claimed it violated federal discrimination laws by refusing to accommodate food servers with disabilities. You can avoid a similar outcome by implementing reasonable accommodation procedures.

dog

Who Let the Dogs in? Handling Requests for Service Animals at Work

It seems like I’m seeing more and more people with service animals—particularly “comfort animals” meant to ease anxiety or similar problems. Under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), employers must provide “reasonable accommodations” to employees with disabilities. Does that mean you must allow disabled employees to bring their pets to work? Well, it depends.

Top 10 employer mistakes in accommodating disabled employees

by Matthew A. Goodin Even experienced HR professionals have a difficult time with requests for reasonable accommodation from disabled employees. This process is even trickier if the employee needs a leave of absence as an accommodation because of the intersection of different laws that govern leaves of absence. Below are some of the most common […]

Increase diversity by recruiting, retaining people with disabilities

by Stephanie Holstein Having a diverse workforce includes hiring people with disabilities, which can create a positive and inclusive work environment, be good for the bottom line, and help bring down the high unemployment rates of people with disabilities. There are a number of best practices and helpful resources to make recruiting and retaining people […]

New year, new accessibility obligations

by Jackie VanDerMeulen Establishing proactive measures to ensure accessibility is becoming common ground in Canada. Ontario has the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA). Manitoba is in the process of rolling out similar legislation, which will start impacting the private sector in 2018. British Columbia is in the process of rolling out its Accessibility […]

California at epicenter of rise in disability access cases against small businesses

by Matthew A. Goodin In addition to allowing disabled employees to sue their employers for discriminating or refusing to provide reasonable accommodations, both federal and California law allow disabled persons to sue businesses and places of public accommodation for failing to comply with a myriad of accessibility requirements, such as having wheelchair ramps or the […]

Employee flatulence is no laughing matter

by Mark M. Schorr Q Have you ever dealt with an extreme case of employee flatulence disrupting the workplace and causing coworkers to get sick and vomit? We have a situation right now in which a disabled employee is on a mix of medications that causes extreme flatulence. There have been numerous employee complaints, and […]