Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/131821
Compliance request and fired her for refusing to continue supervising the breaks. Also last month, the EEOC announced the settlement of a lawsuit against The Scooter Store, a company that caters to those with limited mobility. The EEOC sued that company for refusing to grant a limited mobility manager a temporary leave of absence due to a knee injury related to his psoriatic arthritis. As part of the settlement, The Scooter Store paid the employee $99,000, and executed a five-year consent decree requiring the company to modify its leave policy and monitor and train its employees on antidiscrimination law. In November 2012, the EEOC settled a similar disability discrimination case with a nursing home, GGNSC Charlotte Renaissance, LLC, for refusing to provide a leave of absence to an employee who was hospitalized for a major depressive episode. In that settlement, the company was required to pay the employee $50,000 in damages and sign a two-year consent decree requiring, among other things, training of employees on anti-discrimination law and submission of periodic reports identifying each request for accommodation and its outcome. The EEOC's trend of targeting employers who refuse to offer reasonable accommodations to their employees will continue. Indeed, on December 17, 2012, the EEOC approved a Strategic Enforcement Plan for fiscal years 2013-2016. One of the agency's enforcement priorities in that plan is reasonable accommodation issues under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the federal law prohibiting disability discrimination. Protection Plan Employers should be actively reducing their risk exposure to charges and lawsuits based on failure to reasonably accommodate applicants and employees. To do so, employers should engage in a periodic holistic assessment of the company's policies and procedures on leaves of absence and other requests for accommodations. The ADA requires employers with 15 or more employees to offer reasonable accommodations to qualified applicants and employees with known disabilities. Examples of reasonable accommodation include, but are not limited to, some core actions: modifying facilities or other aspects of the work environment, modifying or acquiring equipment, and/or restructuring work schedules, nonessential job functions, and training programs and/or examinations. Other reasonable accommodations might include leaves of absence, reassigning an employee to a vacant position, and allowing an employee to telecommute. Decisions on appropriate accommodations must be based on the particular facts of the situation; they do not require an employer to lower production standards, remove essential job functions, or provide individuals with wheelchairs, hearing aids, or other devices if those devices are also needed outside of work. [44] HRO TODAY MAGAZINE | APRIL 2013 Employers are not required to make an accommodation if doing so would impose an "undue hardship" for the employer. "Undue hardship" is defined as an "action requiring significant difficulty or expense" when considered in light of a number of factors, including the nature and cost of the accommodation in relation to the size, resources, nature, and structure of the employer's business. Furthermore, employers need not accommodate an individual if the individual would present a "direct threat," such that the individual poses a significant risk of substantial harm to the health or safety of the individual or of others, if that risk cannot be eliminated or adequately reduced by a reasonable accommodation. Importantly, employers may not assume that a direct threat exists, but must demonstrate the existence of a significant risk of substantial harm via objective, medically supportable means. Self-Assessment Many companies have a written policy that prohibits disability discrimination. Employers should ensure that their written policy states, at a minimum, that the employer meets the following: (1) does not discriminate or retaliate against individuals with disabilities, (2) provides reasonable accommodations to individuals with known disabilities, and (3) has a procedure advising individuals how to request an accommodation. The policy should clearly set forth to whom requests for accommodations may be made, and provide guidance on the general types of information that the