News
|
|
Rise in Disability Discrimination
|
Workers with medical restrictions are more likely to seek modified jobs after cuts in Vocational Rehabilitation made changing jobs harder. Employers are obligated to help employees get back to work.
The federal Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) prohibit discrimination based on disability.
Two of the law firm’s attorneys recently described in a leading legal journal how the elimination of meaningful Vocational Rehabilitation increases an employer’s potential liability.
Employers who fail to reasonably accommodate restricted workers are committing disability discrimination, write Mark Edelstein and Gary N. Stern in CAAAments magazine, and can be ordered to pay damages for past and future lost earnings and emotional distress in a civil action.
After an employee injured at work has completed medical treatment, his or her doctor must decide if the patient can return to their previous job with or without restrictions. If the worker is restricted, the issue arises of their employer’s obligation to help them return to work.
Before 2004, injured employees who couldn’t return to their old jobs – and weren’t offered modified work – could be retrained for a new job consistent with their medical limits. However, since “Voc Rehab” was virtually abolished in January 2004, more workers are likely to seek alternate jobs with their current employer.
California employers cannot ignore their legal obligations to injured employees who later seek to return to work with medically imposed restrictions. Employers who know of an employee’s disability must inform him or her of all potential reasonable accommodations. They must engage in an interactive, problem-solving process with disabled workers – including consultations with doctors or other qualified experts – to identify and implement effective accommodations.
The law firm has successfully pursued claims for workers who were victims of disability discrimination.
|
|
|
