EEOC Guidance on Leave as an Accommodation Answers ADA Questions

Recently, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission provided some much needed guidance that addresses the rights of employees with disabilities who seek leave as a reasonable accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The EEOC’s new resource document, Employer-Provided Leave and the Americans with Disabilities Act, replaces enforcement guidance issued October 2002. The new policy takes a page from Congress’ playbook from the ADAAA amendment process. Although it breaks no new legal ground, it simplifies the inquiry and refocuses attention on the overall mission of voluntary compliance. The basic premise of the guidance is that employers must provide unpaid leave unless they can show that doing so would create an undue hardship. The guidance goes on to address many of the issues that have prevented employees from securing medical leave both in the workplace and in the courts. Likewise, it identifies common employer mistakes and pitfalls that frequently lead to litigation. The guidance, like the ADA itself, focuses directly on the interactive process and the concept of individualized inquiry on which it is based. This process involves an interactive dialogue and good-faith communication between the parties that are designed to identify what is reasonable in any given case.

Source/more: Legal Intelligencer

David Wingate is an elder law attorney at the Elder Law Office of David Wingate, LLC. The elder law office services clients with powers of attorneys, living wills, Wills, Trusts, Medicaid and asset protection. The Elder Law office has locations in Frederick and Montgomery Counties, Maryland.