Law Suits and the Expanded Definition of Disability by ADA

 

The Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act of 2008 has expanded the realm of the definition of disability. As a result, employers have been receiving a much higher number for requests by employees asking for accommodation as per the ADA guideline. A majority of the requests made under ADA is absent leaves and alteration in the schedule of the assigned work. In addition, the Equal Opportunity Commission and several courts all across the country have recognized unpaid leaves as an allowed accommodation under the ADA Act.

Employers use several methodologies for accommodating the requests of employees under ADA. For instance, accommodations like vacation leave and sick leave can be provided by the employer. Besides, the employee is also entitled to paid-time-off benefits. The Family and Leave Act can also be used by the employee for availing unpaid leaves and paid-time-off benefits. In addition, they can also use facilities like receiving payments as part of the workers’ compensation benefits plan and the disability employers’ benefit plan simultaneously. Leaves can also be provided to the employee under the norms of the company policy. All of these available options with the employer are seen as viable options under the ADA.
It is often mistaken by employers that their responsibility exhausts as these options exhaust, and they are not obligated towards the employees beyond this point in time. However, this belief faced a stern challenge from the EEOC recently, and the employees were paid huge amounts against this claim. One such case is the one where a retailer agreed to settle the case for a price as high as $6.2 million. This decision by the EEOC came against the company’s policy that terminated all employees who had been absent from work for a period of more than one year on reasons like disability. The workers were given huge claim amounts to settle the matter.
Another case to exhibit a similar result was when the EEOC settled a case against one of the famous communications company for a staggering amount of $20 million. The company had made the mistake of holding the employees with disabilities responsible for being absent from work. It was because of their excessive absences that the employees were terminated and asked to leave the company. This violated the ADA guidelines, which became the base for the EEOC ruling.
A famous grocery store had a company policy that stated that the employees were eligible for only a fixed period of medical leave and any leave taken beyond that time shall lead to termination of the employees contact. This was seen as a major violation of the ADA guidelines, and the EEOC settled the case for an amount of $3.2 million. In another case, the EEOC settled the case against an airline company that disallowed the shortening of work schedules for the employees. The company policy was such that the employees had to take an absence from work leave.
The bottom line is that irrespective of the company involved, you, as an employee, have the right to avail accommodations on account of your disability. If you have been asked to give your resignation because of reasons that a may be similar to these, you must immediately contact the labor law attorneys at United Employees Law Group for professional help.