JOB RESTRUCTURINGFind more information on various issues surrounding JOB RESTRUCTURING... Accommodating Employees With Mental Disabilities
In general, accommodating employees with mental disabilities is no different from accommodating persons with physical disabilities. The process of accommodation is the same as are the types...
Accommodating Injured Workers
An employer's duty of accommodation is not limited solely to job applicants newly entering an employer's workforce. Employees may become disabled during the course of their employment, especially...
Accommodating Known Disabilities
The ADA requires that reasonable accommodation be made only to the ''known'' physical or mental limitations of an otherwise qualified individual. An employer is not ''expected to...
Accommodating Persons with Hearing Impairments
Accommodations for persons with hearing impairments may include providing the following devices: - Telephone handset amplifiers; - Telephones with compatible hearing aides;...
Accommodating Persons With Hearing Impairments With Additional Tools
In addition to providing special equipment to accommodate hearing impaired employees, employers may also need to hire sign language interpreters. This accommodation may be particularly appropriate...
Accommodation For Drugs Or Alcohol Addicts
The ADA treats addiction to either drugs or alcohol differently from other types of disabilities. Accordingly, an employer's obligation to an alcoholic or a recovering drug addict in the...
Accommodations Personal To Employee Are Not Reasonable
Although the list of special devices that an employer may need to provide or supply in making a reasonable accommodation is extensive, the employer's obligation extends to only those devices that...
Accommodations Producing Hardship On Employer
In choosing which accommodation to utilize, those accommodations that impose an ''undue hardship'' upon the employer need not be provided. Where either of two effective accommodations would enable...
Altering Facilities As Accommodation
Many individuals with disabilities may have difficulty performing a particular job because of the physical configuration and structure of the work site. In order for an employer to fulfill...
Analyzing The Accommodation Request
When a reasonable accommodation becomes necessary for a qualified individual with a disability, the following steps should be taken: After analyzing the job and assessing its essential functions,...
Changing Supervisors As Reasonable Accommodation
While the ADA does not require an employer to assign a new supervisor to an employee with a disability as a reasonable accommodation, the statute does not prohibit an employer from doing...
Communicating Accommodations In Advertisements, Job Applications And Employee Handbooks
Employers may include in their employment advertisements a specific provision stating that they are an equal opportunity employer that does not discriminate on the basis of race, color,...
Considerations In Granting A Leave Of Absence
In granting leave as a reasonable accommodation, an employer would be obligated to hold open the employee's job, unless doing so would impose an undue hardship. Also, according to the EEOC, if...
Documenting Accommodation Requests and Compliance
The handling of requests for accommodation and the assessment of the costs and benefits of various options should be fully documented. Adequate documentation would include such information as: ...
Duty To Continue Accommodations
An employer's duty to provide reasonable accommodation to employees with disabilities does not end with the provision of an accommodation; the duty is a continuing one. Although in many...
EEOC Interpretation of Reasonable Accommodation Under ADA
Not making reasonable accommodations to the known physical or mental limitations of an otherwise qualified individual with a disability who is an applicant or employee, unless such covered entity...
EEOC Requirements On Reassignment
In its Enforcement Guidance on ''Reasonable Accommodations and Undue Hardship under the Americans with Disabilities Act,'' the EEOC has stated explicitly that reassignment is a...
EEOC’s Definition of Reasonable Accommodations
The EEOC's final regulatory definition is in line with that proposed by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, which in its 1983 publication Accommodating the Spectrum of Individual Abilities...
EEOC’s Reasonable Accommodation
Accommodations mentioned by the EEOC may include the following: - Permitting the use of accrued paid leave for medical treatment of an employee's disability; - Providing additional...
Effectiveness of Reasonable Accommodations
Under the EEOC's approach, whether an accommodation is a ''reasonable'' accommodation turns upon whether the accommodation is effective in enabling an individual with a disability to enjoy...
Employee Must Request Accommodations
The EEOC has recognized that ''in general ... it is the responsibility of the individual with a disability to inform the employer that an accommodation is needed.'' The courts have followed...
Employer Sanctions On Drugs and Alcohol Use
The ADA allows an employer to institute the following requirements with respect to the use of drugs or alcohol: - Prohibit the illegal use of drugs and the use of alcohol at the workplace;...
Examples of Reasonable Accommodations
Both the Act and the implementing regulations list various examples of the most common types of accommodations that an employer may be required to provide: - Job restructuring; - Part-time...
Extent of Reasonable Accommodation
The duty to make reasonable accommodations applies to all employment decisions, not simply to those pertaining to hiring or promotion. The requirement also extends to all job applicants and to...
Further Accommodating A Modified Work Schedule
If an employer establishes a modified work schedule as a reasonable accommodation, the employer also should take steps to ensure that the employee's work load is not so great as to prevent...
Handling Accommodation Requests
Once a request for accommodation is made by a qualified individual with a disability, the employer is obliged, in the EEOC's words, to ''make a reasonable effort'' to determine the...
How to Reasonably Accommodate
Probably the most difficult decision that an employer will need to make in complying with the Americans with Disabilities Act will be in determining what accommodations may be required for...
Informing Employees of Reasonable Accommodations
In most workplaces, information is provided to employees through a number of different means, which may include the following: - posters, - bulletin boards, - mail boxes, -...
Informing Employer’s Staff Of Commitment to Accommodate
An employer should seek to ensure that all of its employees and supervisors are aware of the employer's commitment to reasonably accommodate employees with disabilities. In addition, supervisors...
Interactive Process to Determine Accommodations
In carrying out its obligation to engage in the interactive process, all that an employer needs to do is to ''make a good faith effort to seek accommodations.'' An employer can show its good faith...
Leave Of Absence As A Reasonable Accommodation
A leave of absence may be a reasonable accommodation. The EEOC has suggested that an employee with a disability may require leave as a reasonable accommodation for a number of reasons, including...
Liability to Continue voluntary Accommodations
An employer may go beyond its obligations under the ADA and provide voluntarily an accommodation to an individual with a disability that exceeds the ADA's ''reasonable'' accommodation requirement....
Limitations Of Reasonable Accommodations
An employer, however, need not go so far in modifying facilities and services to obtain ''an absolute identity in working conditions between disabled and non-disabled workers.'' For example, in...
Making Interview Site Accessible To All Applicants
All applicants, including those with disabilities, should be able to physically get to the interview site. An accessibility survey may be conducted to determine what, if any, barriers to...
Modification of Equipment or Devices As Accommodation
Acquisition or modification of equipment or devices may encompass a number of accommodations that an employer may make. The types of equipment or devices that may be appropriate to aid employees...
Modification of Examinations, Training Manuals, or Policies As Accommodation
In order to accommodate job applicants with disabilities, job application forms, pre-employment tests and other job application material should be offered in accessible formats such as...
Modified Schedules As Accommodation
Modified work schedules may also be required to accommodate persons who have certain types of medical disabilities or who need medical treatment during the week or at various times during the...
Modifying Non-Working Space As Accommodation
Importantly, an employer's obligation to accommodate individuals with disabilities at the work site includes not only those areas where the employee performs the essential job functions, but...
Providing Job Coach As Accommodation
The EEOC has taken the position that an employer may be required to provide a temporary job coach to assist in the training of a qualified individual with a disability. Public or private...
Quality Of Accommodation
The accommodation does not have to be the ''best'' accommodation possible, as long as, in the words of the Senate Report on the ADA, it provides a ''meaningful equal employment opportunity.''...
Reasonable Accommodation As A Fundamental Requirement
In line with the goals of the ADA, Section 102(b)(5) of the Act requires an employer to remove such barriers by making ''reasonable accommodation to the known physical or mental limitations of...
Reasonable Accommodation by Contractors
An employer's duty to make reasonable accommodations to individuals with disabilities applies not only to its direct operations or activities, but also to those operations or activities that...
Reasonable Accommodation May Cover Non-Work Areas
The obligation to undertake a reasonable accommodation is not limited to work facilities or activities; the obligation includes all non-work facilities or programs provided or maintained by...
Reasonable Accommodation Obligations of Temp Agencies
In today's business world, it is becoming more common for a company to use a staffing firm to supply the company with employees for some or all of its operations. Indeed, one study has noted...
Reasonable Accommodations For Emergencies
Reasonable accommodation may involve more than simply aiding a person with a disability in performing his or her specific job tasks. For example, an employer may need to assess and alter its...
Reasonable Accommodations For The Blind
For blind and visually impaired individuals, reasonable accommodation by an employer may require the provision of equipment and adaptive devices such as the following: - Reading material...
Reassignment Does Not Mandate Bumping Others
While reasonable accommodation may include reassignment, there is no duty under the Rehabilitation Act for an employer to ''bump'' other employees from positions they hold to accommodate...
Reassignment of An Injured Worker
Even if an injured employee may not be able to perform with reasonable accommodation the essential functions of that employee's old job, the employer still has an obligation to consider...
Reassignment to Lower Level Position As Accommodation
The EEOC's Interpretive Guidance on the ADA emphasizes that reassignment ''may not be used to limit, segregate, or otherwise discriminate against employees with disabilities.'' This prohibition...
Rejection of a Reasonable Accommodation
An employer may not compel a qualified individual with a disability to accept an accommodation, particularly where the accommodation is neither requested nor needed by the individual. As noted by...
Relationship Between ADA and FMLA Requirements for Unpaid Leave
An employer may be required to grant unpaid leave and to modify a disabled employee's work schedule not only to satisfy the ADA's reasonable accommodation requirement. Another federal law, the...
Request For Accommodation Made By Third Parties
A request for a reasonable accommodation may come from someone other than the individual with a disability. The EEOC takes the position that a family member, friend, health care professional,...
Seniority Systems And Reasonable Accommodations
Many employers have put in place systems for filling vacant positions based upon seniority. Must an employer, as a reasonable accommodation, ignore a seniority policy by reassigning a disabled...
Third Party Liability to Employee
In some situations, an employer may have the right under the lease or other contractual relationship with the property owner to make the type of changes that are needed to assure accessibility...
Unacceptable Schedule Modifications
The EEOC has recognized that for certain positions, the time during which an essential job function is performed may be critical. This could affect whether an employer can grant a request to...
What is Reasonable Accommodations
Exactly what constitutes ''reasonable accommodation'' is not explicitly defined in the statute. Under the EEOC's regulations, an accommodation consists of any change in the work environment or...
When Does the Duty to Accommodate Arise?
Under the ADA and the EEOC's regulations, the obligation to make a reasonable accommodation is owed only to an ''otherwise qualified individual with a disability.'' According to the EEOC,...
Why Have Reasonable Accommodation Requirement
The ADA embodies a fundamental difference from prior civil rights statutes prohibiting discrimination based upon race, sex or national origin. Those statutes simply prohibit an employer...
Working At Home As An Accommodation
For individuals who have great trouble traveling, arranging for alternative worksites, such as at a person's home, may be a reasonable accommodation. Because computer equipment and telecopiers...
Working Fewer Hours Per Week
Sometimes an employee with a disability may need to work a fewer number of hours per week than is normally required, for example 30 instead of the customary 40 hours per week. In this...
Work-When-Able Not Reasonable Accommodation
Open-ended and work-when-able schedules generally are not reasonable accommodations under the ADA. Courts have found that allowing employees to work when they can would be too disruptive to...
Written Requests to Accommodate
There is no statutory requirement that requests for reasonable accommodation be in writing. The EEOC has taken the position that individuals with disabilities may request accommodation...