Avoid This Common Mistake When Requesting Medical Leave

Avila v Continental Airlines (2008) is a disability discrimination case which illustrates a common mistake that employees makes when requesting medical leave or disability leave. In that case, the plaintiff was terminated for missing seven days of work, four of which were due to hospitalization for acute pancreatitis. The employee had provided two medical forms Read More …

Total Disability And Your Disability Discrimination Case

Suppose you have been fired from your job while being on disability leave because of your serious medical condition. Around the time of your termination or shortly after  you are certified as totally disabled – i.e. unable to perform any job indefinitely or forever. Let’s assume that you can prove that the reason for your Read More …

Preferential Reassignment As A Disability Accommodation in California

One type of an accommodation that an employee with a qualifying disability in California may be entitled to is preferential reassignment to a different position that would accommodate that disability. This right has a tendency to “collide” with the employer’s rights with regard to disabled workers. Under the same law, the employers don’t have to Read More …

Attendance Issues And Disability At Workplace

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 …

Disability Rights – The Undue Hardship Checklist in California

“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 …

Reassignment as a Disability Accommodation

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 …