Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
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.
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.
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Searching for employment often feels like one of life’s most difficult challenges. The job seeker has to find a suitable position, go through the application process, hope to advance to the interview stage, and then find a way to stand out in what may be a crowd of applicants vying for the same job. Employers […]
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 […]
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 […]
Employers doing business with the federal government need to mark March 24 in red on their calendars. That’s when major parts of new regulations affecting how they recruit and hire veterans and people with disabilities take effect. The Vietnam Era Veterans Readjustment Assistance Act (VEVRAA) requires contractors to take affirmative action to employ veterans covered […]
As October nears, employers may be hearing a lot about how people with disabilities can benefit the workplace. Every year, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP) designates October as a time to raise awareness about the value of employing people with disabilities. This year’s theme–“Because We Are EQUAL to the […]