In safety-conscious environments—such as in the medical and food industries—employees who become ill often face questions about their health from co-workers and associates. That’s only natural. But sometimes, inquiries about an employee’s illness are simply off-limits ...

The ADA requires an employer that has reason to believe an employee wants an accommodation to begin an interactive accommodations process. Ignoring an accommodation request is dangerous. Instead, set up a process that logs all requests and puts the matter on the fast track to resolution ...

The ADA protects only truly disabled employees from discrimination. It isn’t enough that someone has been diagnosed with a medical condition—even a serious-sounding one like diabetes or a hepatitis infection. Each ADA case is judged on how the illness affects the individual ...

The dangers of smoking are well documented: heart disease and cancer, shorter life expectancy, higher health care expenses. Now add another risk: As workers in Indiana just found out, smoking could get you fired. Was their employer justified in taking action, or did it step into a legal quagmire?

Some jobs are more dangerous than others if employees can’t perform them safely. For those types of positions, you can require periodic physical exams and suspend employees found to have physical problems that could increase the likelihood of an accident. If you do so, you don’t have to worry that you’ll violate the ADA ...

California law and the ADA protect just about anyone who “associates” with a disabled person from discrimination. It doesn’t have to be a child, spouse or blood relative. The California Fair Employment and Housing Act and the Unruh Act both protect those who count disabled persons as friends ...

Do some of your employees’ spouses or children have serious (and expensive) health troubles? It may be tempting to offer suggestions about less costly treatments—or even to send that employee packing. But don’t do it. As this new ruling shows, it’s illegal to discriminate against employees based on their relationship with a disabled person ...

It takes just one unkind comment about an employee’s alleged disability to send an ADA case to trial. What’s more, even if the employee couldn’t otherwise prove she’s disabled, a malicious comment may be enough to convince the court that the employer regarded the employee as disabled. That’s an ADA violation all by itself ...

Q. We have a two-story building with production operations on the first floor and administrative offices on both the first and second floors. There is no elevator in the building. An office employee who works in a department on the second floor has been off work for a back injury. Now he wants to return to work but cannot climb the stairs. Do we have to reassign the employee to the first floor? There is no available space there, and the employee’s work duties are on the second floor ...

Most employers start thinking about possible ADA accommodations right away, before they are sure that the affected employees are actually disabled. That’s fine and won’t mean the employers can’t require medical proof later. Agreeing to accommodate is not the same as admitting the employee is disabled ...

Does your organization have a blanket policy that limits time off for any reason to no more than 12 consecutive months? If you apply that policy evenhandedly, you don’t have to worry that it violates the ADA’s requirement that you provide reasonable accommodations ...

Sometimes, injured employees use up all the leave their employer or the law allows before they’re ready to return to work. If the employee isn’t disabled as defined by the ADA, you can remove the employee from the payroll. (He may still be eligible for workers’ compensation payments.) ...

Q. Our staff is wondering why we haven’t implemented a wellness program at work to motivate people to learn and practice good health habits. Are there any restrictions on this? ...

Not every mental or physical condition is a disability under the ADA. Consider claustrophobia. Though the condition, which involves the inability to remain in a confined space such as an elevator, may be a legitimate psychiatric condition, it does not necessarily prevent those who suffer from it from living a relatively normal life ...