As remote work continues to reshape the workplace, both California employees and employers are grappling with a key question:When must an employer allow remote work as a reasonable accommodation to an employee’s disability or serious medical condition under California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA)? FEHA & Reasonable Accommodation Basics…
An employer who isn’t aware of your disability prior to firing you for taking several days off work due to that condition cannot possibly be held liable for disability discrimination based on the disability that the employer simply didn’t know about. This is both logical and fair. In Avila v…
A typical disability discrimination claim by a salesperson involves a situation where the employee was fired for not meeting goals due to, in whole or in part, his known medical condition / qualifying disability. The employer then terminates an employee and later argues that the termination was lawful, because meeting…
Both California employees and employers must know that an unprotected medical leave without a promise of reinstatement is not an accommodate under California disability laws. An accommodation by definition is a change or adjustment which allows disabled individuals to perform their job. A leave of absence without a corresponding right…
The California Court of Appeal has recently issued a decision in the Ross v County of Riverside case, which is quite helpful to those employees who take time off to be tested for a serious illness, whether they end up being actually diagnosed with it or not. The court took…
On August 8, 2017, EEOC announced filing a lawsuit against UPS Freight, alleging violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). “Employers must treat employees with disabilities the same as those without disabilities when issuing workplace benefits,” said EEOC St. Louis District director James R. Neely Jr. According to EEOC,…
“Can I be fired while on disability leave?” – this is one of the most common questions that I hear from employees, who have suffered an injury and have to be off work due to that injury or some other illness. The answer to this question is twofold: (1) The…
One common question employees ask is whether they can be fired while on disability leave and whether that would be legal. The reality is that an employer can choose to fire you at any time for any reason, and nothing can physically stop them from firing you or force them…
Recently, the Fifth District Court of Appeal made a very important distinction in its disability discrimination opinion Wallace v County of Stanislaus, which is highly useful to employees-plaintiffs. The court clarified, among other things, what it means to be discriminated “because of” disability. For years, the employers have been fighting…