Law Office of Arkady Itkin / Tel. 916-720-0100 / e-mail: arkady@arkadylaw.com
Until recently, the employers were able to successfully argue that a retaliation claim cannot be made based on requesting accommodation to a disability. This was due to the California case law that suggested that requesting an accommodation to a disability is not a “protected activity” within the meaning of FEHA anti-retaliation laws, and therefore no Read More …
One of the most common types of medical notes that we see our clients receive is the so-called Kaiser “Work Status Report“. Usually, it just states that an employee is excused from work from date x till date y. No further information about that employee’s medical condition is provided. While this kind of Kaiser note Read More …
It’s not uncommon for employers to place a disabled employee on unpaid medical leave, even though that employee can perform all or most of his job duties with accommodation. An employer can have to major motivations for doing this – (a) hiring a (temporary) replacement who is healthy and who will be more efficient at Read More …
Many compelling disability discrimination cases involve a situation where the employee has to call in sick due to his known serious medical condition or a disability, but the employer nevertheless penalizes that employee for those absences by writing that employee up or giving him a “point” for each absence, if there is a points systems Read More …
“Undue hardship” is one type of defense available to employers to justify why they didn’t / couldn’t accommodate a disabled employee, as may be required by ADA / FEHA. To use this defense, the employer has a burden of proving that specific accommodation would have imposed an undue hardship on their operations financially or otherwise. Read More …
The FEHA (California Fair Employment and Housing Act) imposes on employers the duty to reasonably accommodate their employees’ physical disabilities. Under the FEHA, “reasonable accommodation” means a “modification or adjustment at the workplace that enables the employee to perform the essential functions of the job held or desired. Nadaf-Rahrov v Neiman Marcus Group, Inc. (2008). If Read More …
One type of an accommodation to a workplace disability that an employee may be entitled to is a reassignment due to a disability to a different position. Below is a useful information on your rights / obligations as a disabled worker, if you are in a situation where reassignment might be a good option for Read More …
The California courts make it clear that it is illegal to deny reasonable accommodations to a disable employee because of his disciplinary record related to that disability. In Humphrey v Memorial Hosps. Ass’n (2001), a medical transcriptionist with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) was consistently late to work because of ritualistic grooming behaviors in the morning. Read More …
It is important to remember that while any kind of unpaid leave that your supervisor or “hiring authority” at a state / county agency may be able to provide, if you are a qualified employee with a disability or serious medical condition within the meaning of ADA / FEHA, you might be entitled to protected Read More …
As expansive as disability rights of California workers are, the right of qualifying disabled employees of California State agencies are even more broad that those of private sector employees. This is illustrated by the precedent decision of the State Personnel Board No. 00-07. In that case, the Board considered whether the employee of the DMV Read More …