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Earlier this month, Carl Sorabella was laid off by his employer of 14 years. Their rationale was “workforce modifications”, although for Carl Sorbella and his wife Kathy the timing could not be worse or more suspicious.
Kathy, 44 years old, was recently diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. Carl, her husband of 23 years asked his employer for some time off (more…)
The EEOC has filed a federal lawsuit against Starbucks.
The commission, which filed the lawsuit in May 2011, said that Starbucks, which employs over 135,000 people in the US, violated federal law by denying a reasonable accommodation to an employee with dwarfism, who was hired in July 2009 and was fired after three days of training.
According to the lawsuit, Starbucks violated federal law when it failed to make a reasonable accommodation for a new hire with dwarfism. (more…)
Employers and human resource personnel often find themselves trying to reasonably accommodate the needs of disabled employees under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
Unfortunately, for many employers, the concept of ADA accommodation can be a controversial topic. (more…)
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is 20 years old. In addition, recently employer focused ADA compliance issues and requirements were in the news as a result of some political campaign, included national coverage of Rand Paul’s senate run in Kentucky.
It is hard to argue the impact of ADA in our everyday lives, many accessibility improvements have become commonplace when they used to be rare. Technology has also increased accessibility options – such as voice simulation on computers, virtual offices, web-based communications – allowing widespread access to information, communication, and functionality that was not an option 30 years ago.
Despite the options currently available, at issue for employers is complying with ADA accessibility requests of its employees and potential hires. Unfortunately it is the perception of many that employer ADA compliance results in a costly and often unreasonable burden on the employer.
This is a clear misunderstanding.
ADA compliance guidelines charge employers with making “Reasonable Accommodation” to comply with ADA guidelines. Unfortunately, this seems to be often misunderstood. It is not the intent of ADA that employers are at the mercy of their employees (or potential employees), instead it is the intent that reasonable accommodations will be made to facilitate an individual employee’s ability to be a successful and valuable employee. In other words, ADA compliance guidelines benefit both the employee and the employer.
Perhaps a job function requires that an employee stand for an extended period of time. However, someone – who can fulfill all other requirements of the job – is not able to comply with the expectation of standing due to temporary or permanent injury or disability. A reasonable accommodation may be the use of a stool or chair during this individual’s shift.
Perhaps an office is located above ground level with no wheelchair access. As opposed to relocating the entire office to accommodate a single employee, creating a virtual work environment for the employee may be an option.
An employee who has back or other issues requiring a modified work station may initially request a particular ergonomic chair that costs thousands of dollars – which can be cost prohibitive for many employers. Perhaps there are other options that meet the physical and medical needs of the employee, but are far more realistic for employers to provide.
These options may seem overly simplistic – how can it be that easy if everyone is so at odds about the cost of ADA compliance?
It seems that, like so many conflicts (an issue that is trying to be resolved from two divergent views), the employers and employees involved in this issue have found themselves fully ensconced in their emotional-based positions: each side focusing on protecting and supporting their idea, instead of working towards a resolution. They have lost sight of the shared interest in the resolution of the conflict.
Mediation is an excellent means of the resolving conflicts related to ADA compliance – included worksite ADA compliance issues.
A neutral mediator can bring both sides together to create a resolution to the ADA compliance issue that promotes the shared interests and meets both the needs of the employer and the employee.
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