In recent months, we have reported extensively on the various carrot-and-stick approaches taken by employers to try to incentivize employees to get the COVID-19 vaccine. In recent weeks, we have seen employers frustrated over...more
July 26 was the 31st anniversary of the enactment of the Americans with Disabilities Act. In an announcement associated with that anniversary, President Joe Biden’s administration indicated that long-term symptoms associated...more
Under the Americans with Disabilities Act, employers are required to consider reassignment to an existing vacant position as a last ditch form of reasonable accommodation for an employee unable to return to their previous...more
On May 28, the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission updated its COVID-19 “Technical Assistance Questions and Answers” for employers to provide additional guidance on vaccination policies. While the update does not...more
If disabled employees are no longer able to perform the essential functions of their job even with reasonable accommodation, under the Americans with Disabilities Act the employer must consider transferring the workers to an...more
5/7/2021
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Appeals ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Disability ,
Dismissals ,
Employee Transfers ,
Employment Litigation ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Essential Functions ,
Failure to Accommodate ,
Reasonable Accommodation ,
Remand ,
Reversal
As more businesses move toward ending remote working arrangements, we have had a number of questions from clients with regard to employee requests to continue working from home for medical reasons. The employees cite a...more
Some employers are considering mandating COVID-19 vaccinations as a condition of employment. While such policies are generally legal (with some religious and disability accommodations included), they could result in claims...more
In the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2002 Barnett decision, the court held that qualified disabled employees are entitled to reassignment to an existing vacant position under the Americans with Disabilities Act if they become unable...more
It may seem like a lifetime ago, but the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) has only been in effect since March. Just as employers have become comfortable with the law’s paid leave and other provisions, FFCRA is...more
The Americans with Disabilities Act requires employers to provide reasonable accommodations to employees with protected disabilities. Another part of the ADA requires employers to refrain from discriminating against disabled...more
11/6/2020
/ Adverse Employment Action ,
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Anti-Discrimination Policies ,
Appeals ,
Disability Discrimination ,
Dismissals ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Litigation ,
Reasonable Accommodation ,
Remand ,
Reversal
Under the Americans with Disabilities Act, if an employee with a disability requests accommodation, the employer must work with that person to determine if there are reasonable measures that can be taken that allow the...more
In order to claim discrimination under the Americans with Disabilities Act, employees must demonstrate that they could perform the essential functions of the job but were denied a reasonable accommodation. Some employers...more
3/11/2020
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Appeals ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Disability Discrimination ,
Dismissals ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Litigation ,
Essential Functions ,
Interactive Process ,
Popular ,
Reasonable Accommodation ,
Reversal
As an alternative to termination, employers faced with employee drug or alcohol policy violations sometimes want to give that person a second chance. Typically, this process involves a commitment by the employee to seek...more
From time to time, we encounter requests from employees for accommodations under the Americans with Disabilities Act that appear unrelated to the employee’s underlying medical condition. For example, an employee with a back...more
In some situations, employers call us to ask about an employee’s request for job modifications that appear unworkable on their face. Sometimes, the requests remove a substantial part of the employee’s job duties, often...more
When companies change management, employees sometimes believe it is unfair to hold them to higher performance standards than those required by their former supervisors. When it comes to accommodations made to disabled...more
If asked to describe the essential functions of a given job, most employers would include actually showing up to work as a critical component. In recent years the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has taken the position...more
When asked recently about the return of star quarterback Cam Newton, Carolina Panthers coach Ron Rivera responded that he will not play until he is 100 percent recovered from a foot injury. While fine for NFL players,...more
The EEOC and federal courts have repeatedly said that employees seeking accommodations for disabilities under the ADA do not have to use any “magic words” to trigger the employer’s obligations. A recent decision from the...more
Employees or applicants with disabling medical conditions must place the employer on notice of such condition in order to claim protection under the Americans with Disabilities Act. However, as reminded in a new decision from...more
In his classic 1998 business book “Who Moved my Cheese?,” Spencer Johnson discussed the need for businesses and employees to focus on the need to adapt to changes in their industries. In our practice, we frequently see claims...more
7/12/2019
/ American Airlines ,
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Litigation ,
Essential Functions ,
Failure to Accommodate ,
Mergers ,
Reasonable Accommodation ,
Summary Judgment ,
Telecommuting ,
US Airways
On June 3, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously resolved a split among federal appellate courts dealing with the question of whether Title VII’s requirement that plaintiffs file an administrative charge with the Equal...more
6/17/2019
/ Affirmative Defenses ,
Amended Complaints ,
Appeals ,
Charge-Filing Preconditions ,
Civil Rights Act ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Forfeiture ,
Fort Bend County Texas v Davis ,
Jurisdictional Requirements ,
Mandatory Claim-Processing Rules ,
Reaffirmation ,
Reasonable Accommodation ,
Religious Discrimination ,
Retaliation ,
Reversal ,
SCOTUS ,
Time-Barred Claims ,
Title VII ,
Waiver Rule ,
Wrongful Termination
In its Cleveland v. Policy Mgmt. Syst. decision, the U.S. Supreme Court said that an application for Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) benefits does not automatically kill a plaintiff’s contemporaneous assertion...more
Over the past several years, our practice has seen a marked increase in the number of employee accommodation requests that involve remote work. As communications technologies have improved, these employees regularly contend...more
According to the Americans with Disabilities Act, employers may only require employees to submit to medical exams or inquiries when there is a business necessity for determining the employee’s ability to perform the essential...more
2/12/2019
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Appeals ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Dismissals ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Litigation ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Medical Examinations ,
Reasonable Accommodation ,
Reversal