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ADA

Congress OKs bill to expand ADA’s definition of ‘disabled’

09/18/2008

Congress gave final approval on Sept. 17 to legislation that will bring more Americans under the umbrella of “disabled” under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). President Bush said he’d sign the bill. The bill reverses several court rulings from recent years that had limited the scope of ADA protections …

Circulating résumés around the office

09/18/2008

Q. One of our managers who hires for his division has started passing around the résumés of possible candidates to other managers. He wants to get their opinions on the candidates. Does passing along résumés to these people violate any privacy laws?

Congress Approves Bill to Expand ADA’s Definition of ‘Disability’

09/17/2008

Congress gave final approval on Sept. 17 to legislation that will bring more Americans under the umbrella of “disabled” under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Here’s what the bill means to HR professionals and U.S. employers …

The latest ADA disability-rights claim: I’m allergic to the Internet!

09/09/2008

The ADA requires employers to accommodate the disabilities of their employees and customers. We thought we’d heard about every kind of potential disability—until this one …

When Can You Discipline, Fire Disabled Workers? New EEOC Guidance Explains

09/09/2008
The ADA does not affect an employer’s right to hold all employees to basic conduct standards, and employers can apply the same performance standards to all employees, including those with disabilities. That’s the clear conclusion of a new ADA guidance document just issued by the EEOC.

Don’t be intimidated by sudden disability claim during discipline

09/09/2008
Employees who face discipline and are worried about losing their jobs may believe that claiming they are disabled will stop or at least delay the inevitable. They think the ADA is a shield against punishment. Don’t fall for that trick …

Accommodation can include FMLA leave to avoid OT

09/08/2008
Sometimes employers must require their employees to work overtime to meet production goals. That can be a problem if one of the workers has a disability that prevents him from working more than 40 hours per week. It’s perfectly legal to require that the employee use accumulated sick time and FMLA leave to avoid those overtime hours …

Can an interviewer ask about drug use?

09/05/2008
Q. I recently asked an applicant whether she used illegal drugs. She told me she understood that employers were not allowed to ask such questions. Is this legal? …

Tale of two cases: How to avoid costly FMLA and ADA mistakes

09/03/2008
Two recent cases exemplify how easy it is for an unaware and unprepared employer to run afoul of employment laws. In one, an employer’s handbook promised more benefits than the law required the company to provide. In another, the employer transferred a disabled employee apparently just to ease a supervisor’s discomfort with dealing with a disabled staff member …

Don’t let disability assumptions lead you to believe employee can’t work at all

09/02/2008

Employers that wrongly regard injured employees as disabled by refusing to consider them for any open positions may be setting themselves up for “regarded as disabled” litigation. The ADA makes it illegal to discriminate against employees by assuming they are disabled when they are not …