Americans with Disabilities Act
What is the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)?
Enacted in 1990, the ADA prevents employers from discriminating against individuals based on a current or past mental or physical disability. This act applies to all agencies with 15 or more employees, including government entities. The ADA encompasses a wide variety of nondiscrimination standards that Shegerian & Associates works to uphold by representing employees who have been discriminated against.
What is a “reasonable accommodation” and an “undue hardship”?
Reasonable accommodations are adjustments to job duties or the work environment made by the employer to ensure that individuals with disabilities can perform essential job functions and receive the same rights and privileges as employees without disabilities. For example, an employer may provide a sign language interpreter for a deaf employee to enhance the communication process. In this example, the employer makes a reasonable accommodation for the disabled employee.
An undue hardship refers to an accommodation made by an employer that is so substantial that it fundamentally affects the nature of the employer’s business. For example, an employer’s accommodation may exceed the company’s resources. Though some accommodations can be considered undue hardships, the employer must evaluate alternative reasonable accommodations.
Employee Disability Leave
Under California law, employers will be held liable if employees with legitimate disabilities are terminated or not accommodated after a leave of absence (LOA). An LOA is regarded as a period of time that an individual is not actively working at his or her job but retains an “employee” status. With regards to the ADA, medical leave may be considered a reasonable accommodation even after other types of leave have been exhausted.
In the Jensen v. Wells Fargo Bank case (2000), the following was decided: "Holding a job open for a disabled employee who needs time to recuperate or heal is in itself a form of reasonable accommodation and may be all that is required where it appears likely that the employee will be able to return to an existing position at some time in the foreseeable future" (85 CA4th 245, 263).
In cases where an employee is granted an LOA, the employee is required to demonstrate that s/he will likely be able to return to the job at the end of leave. The employer is not required by law to approve an indefinite leave of absence, but leave with no fixed date of return may be considered a reasonable accommodation. However, an open-ended leave might be treated as an undue hardship on the employer.
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) states the following about employees who can only offer an approximate date of return from a leave of absence:
"Treatment and recuperation do not always permit exact timetables. Thus, an employer cannot claim undue hardship solely because an employee can provide only an approximate date of return. In such situations, or in situations in which a return date must be postponed because of unforeseen medical developments, employees should stay in regular communication with their employers to inform them of their progress and discuss, if necessary, the need for continued leave beyond what might have been granted originally." Even if the employee cannot provide a fixed date of return, the employer still must prove that leave would be an undue hardship. Showing undue hardship may be difficult in many circumstances.
For additional information on different types of employee leave and specific exclusions, please refer to the article regarding the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and the California Family Rights Act (CFRA). If you feel that your employer has not provided reasonable accommodations in accordance with ADA regulations, Shegerian & Associates can work with you to recover your losses.