Gillis W' Long Center Safety and Loss Prevention Training

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Gillis W. Long CenterSafety and Loss Prevention
Training

• Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)

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For your protection

• Employee protection comes in many forms, and the
  Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) helps
  provide some of this protection.
• The ADA is a federal anti-discrimination statute
  designed to remove barriers that prevent
  qualified individuals with disabilities from
  enjoying the same opportunities that are
  available to persons without disabilities.

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The General Rule

• The Americans with Disabilities Act gives civil
  rights protections to individuals with
  disabilities similar to those provided to
  individuals on the basis of race, color, sex,
  national origin, age, and religion. It guarantees
  equal opportunity for individuals with
  disabilities in public accommodations,
  employment, transportation, State and local
  government services, and telecommunications.

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Objectives of ADA

• Eliminate discrimination against people with
  disabilities
• Fully integrate them into American economic life
• Transfer the cost of supporting individuals with
  disabilities from the public to the private
  sector.

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Who is protected?

• Title I of the ADA protects qualified individuals
  with disabilities from employment discrimination.
  In order to be protected by the ADA, an
  individual with a disability must be qualified to
  perform the essential functions of the job.
  Employers may not ask job applicants about the
  existence, nature, or severity of a disability,
  but can ask about their ability to perform
  specific job functions.

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Who is covered? Contd

• The second part of the definition protecting
  individuals with a record of a disability would
  cover, for example, a person who has recovered
  from cancer or mental illness.

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Who is covered? Contd

• The third part of the definition protects
  individuals who are regarded as having a
  substantially limiting impairment, even though
  they may not have such an impairment. For
  example, this provision would protect a qualified
  individual with a severe facial disfigurement
  from being denied employment because an employer
  feared the "negative reactions" of customers or
  co-workers.

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Specific Protections

• Recruitment
• Pay
• Hiring
• Firing
• Promotion
• Job assignments
• Training
• Leave
• Lay-off
• Benefits

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Why should I know about this?

• Supervisors and managers deal with many of these
  practices, and, therefore, must be aware of any
  implications in their activities if one of their
  employees falls under the ADA.

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Its their Right!

• The ADA prohibits an employer from retaliating
  against an applicant or employee for asserting
  his rights under the ADA. The Act also makes it
  unlawful to discriminate against an applicant or
  employee, whether disabled or not, because of the
  individual's family, business, social, or other
  relationship or association with an individual
  with a disability.

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Who would not be covered?

• The first part of the definition makes clear that
  the ADA applies to persons who have impairments
  and that these must substantially limit major
  life activities such as seeing, hearing,
  speaking, walking, breathing, performing manual
  tasks, learning, caring for oneself, and working.
  An individual with epilepsy, paralysis, HIV
  infection, AIDS, a substantial hearing or visual
  impairment, mental retardation, or a specific
  learning disability is covered, but an individual
  with a minor, non-chronic condition of short
  duration, such as a sprain, broken limb, or the
  flu, generally would not be covered.

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Why was ADA initiated?

• Barriers to employment, transportation, public
  accommodations, public services, and
  telecommunications have imposed staggering
  economic and social costs on American society and
  have undermined our well-intentioned efforts to
  educate, rehabilitate, and employ individuals
  with disabilities. By breaking down these
  barriers, the Americans with Disabilities Act
  (ADA) was enacted to help enable society to
  benefit from the skills and talents of
  individuals with disabilities, to allow us all to
  gain from their increased purchasing power and
  ability to use it, and to lead to fuller, more
  productive lives for all Americans.

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Things we must do

• A qualified applicant with a disability is an
  individual who, with or without reasonable
  accommodation, can perform the essential
  functions of the job in question. When you help
  create or update job descriptions, pay attention
  to what the essential functions of the job are.
  Reasonable accommodation may include, but are not
  limited to
•       Making existing facilities used by
  employees readily accessible to and usable by
  persons with disabilities
•       Job restructuring, modifying work
  schedules, reassignment to a vacant position or
•       Acquiring or modifying equipment or
  devices, adjusting modifying examinations,
  training materials, or policies, and providing
  qualified readers or interpreters.

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Things we must do Contd

• You will also need to know, that if an employee
  requests a reasonable accommodation to perform a
  job, you must respond. It will help to know to
  what extent you must go to provide this
  accommodation, without causing an undue hardship
  to your organization.
• Undue hardship is defined as an action requiring
  significant difficulty or expense when considered
  in light of factors such as an employer's size,
  financial resources, and the nature and structure
  of its operation.

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What is not required

• You are not required to lower quality or
  production standards to make an accommodation,
  nor is an employer obligated to provide personal
  use items such as glasses or hearing aids.

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Questions?