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Providing accomodation
posted at 4/24/2013 8:15 AM EDT
on Workforce Management
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Posts: 3
First: 4/3/2012 Last: 5/14/2013 |
I have a staff who is dealing with MS. It has of course gotten worse and is now affecting his work schedule. We are a govt. organization in MO. The question i have is about accomodations and what should we do. He is coming in late around 9;30am due to his medication and having problems with mobility. He stays after work to make up the time. The problem is we close to the public at 5:00 pm. He can do some paperwork and we do allow some flex time to others but usually not more than 30 minutes after hours. After hours there is no supervision of his work that he performs during this time. Where do i draw the line? thanks! |
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Re: Providing accomodation
posted at 4/24/2013 10:18 AM EDT
on Workforce Management
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Posts: 215
First: 9/20/2011 Last: 5/14/2013 |
In Response to Providing accomodation: I have a staff who is dealing with MS. It has of course gotten worse and is now affecting his work schedule. We are a govt. organization in MO. The question i have is about accomodations and what should we do. He is coming in late around 9;30am due to his medication and having problems with mobility. He stays after work to make up the time. The problem is we close to the public at 5:00 pm. He can do some paperwork and we do allow some flex time to others but usually not more than 30 minutes after hours. After hours there is no supervision of his work that he performs during this time. Where do i draw the line? thanks! Posted by Thomas55 What you should do is ask this employee what accommodation they need in order to do the required tasks of the job. Regardless of the medical issue, the employer has the right to have the key job duties fulfilled with or without accommodation. The accommodation requested must be "reasonable" and must result in the employee being able to do the key tasks. If the staff member cannot fulfill the job duties then you are allowed to terminate employment or put on sick leave (or LTD if eligible). |
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Re: Providing accomodation
posted at 4/24/2013 12:12 PM EDT
on Workforce Management
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Posts: 15
First: 4/11/2013 Last: 5/8/2013 |
I worked for a Federal government organization and we also had an individual with MS for whom we provided a reasonable accomodation, but his condition deteriorated to the point, where due to his lack of mobility, he became a danger to himself and we were no longer able to offer him an accommodation. The reason I pointed out that I worked for the federal government is because under our regulations and the CBA we were required to go beyond the guidelines of "reasonable accommodation" and offer an available "light duty" assignment, which in many cases was really a "make work" assignment. |
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Re: Providing accomodation
posted at 4/24/2013 12:20 PM EDT
on Workforce Management
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Posts: 15
First: 4/11/2013 Last: 5/8/2013 |
One other point: I am guessing you are a State government organization, but if you are a federal organization your employee is covered under the federal Rehabilitation Act of 1973, for which there is a publication ( I am sorry, I do not recall the number). |
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Re: Providing accomodation
posted at 4/30/2013 2:47 PM EDT
on Workforce Management
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Posts: 1
First: 4/30/2013 Last: 4/30/2013 |
Under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), you draw the line when providing the accommodation causes an undue hardship to the employer. However, if an accommodation is denied based on undue hardship, the employer should try to provide an accommodation that would not be an undue hardship (this is particularly true in your regard since the employer is a state agency presumed to have considerable resources). Working from home, as needed, could be an option to complete the work, but not cause issues with after hours on site. The following is from Reasonable Accommodation and Undue Hardship under the ADA at http://www.eeoc.gov/policy/docs/accommodation.html
Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (the "ADA") requires an employer to provide reasonable accommodation to qualified individuals with disabilities who are employees or applicants for employment, unless to do so would cause undue hardship. "In general, an accommodation is any change in the work environment or in the way things are customarily done that enables an individual with a disability to enjoy equal employment opportunities." The only statutory limitation on an employer's obligation to provide "reasonable accommodation" is that no such change or modification is required if it would cause "undue hardship" to the employer. "Undue hardship" means significant difficulty or expense and focuses on the resources and circumstances of the particular employer in relationship to the cost or difficulty of providing a specific accommodation. Undue hardship refers not only to financial difficulty, but to reasonable accommodations that are unduly extensive, substantial, or disruptive, or those that would fundamentally alter the nature or operation of the business. An employer must assess on a case-by-case basis whether a particular reasonable accommodation would cause undue hardship.
If you need free expert, confidential guidance on accommodation issues consider contacting the Job Accommodation Network (JAN) at 800-526-7234 (Ext 3) or go to two of JAN’s publications relevant in this circumstance at: http://askjan.org/media/MS.html and http://askjan.org/media/eaps/interactiveprocessEAP.doc. |
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Re: Providing accomodation
posted at 5/1/2013 9:50 AM EDT
on Workforce Management
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Posts: 180
First: 9/21/2011 Last: 5/14/2013 |
One reasonable accommodation might be his taking his medication at a different time (earlier) so it is in affect earlier. My nephew has leukemia and gets up at 2 am to take his pill each night so that he can sleep off the bad effects for the first few hours. He then goes about the rest of the day normally. Just something to suggest that arriving late is not always the only accommodation. So think outside the box! |
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Re: Providing accomodation
posted at 5/1/2013 6:07 PM EDT
on Workforce Management
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Posts: 15
First: 4/11/2013 Last: 5/8/2013 |
In Response to Re: Providing accomodation: One reasonable accommodation might be his taking his medication at a different time (earlier) so it is in affect earlier. My nephew has leukemia and gets up at 2 am to take his pill each night so that he can sleep off the bad effects for the first few hours. He then goes about the rest of the day normally. Just something to suggest that arriving late is not always the only accommodation. So think outside the box! Posted by rrupert Just an opinion, but when I was in charge of our Reasonable Accommodation committee I would have never considered "chronic lateness" a reasonable accommodation; change of schedule yes, but an employee deciding what time he or she will arrive at work is not reasonable. I actually had more problems with this under FMLA, where the regulations allow for chronic lateness, however the DOL gives one specific example; a pregnant woman who may be suffering from morning sickness. |
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