DISABILITY AND ACCOMMODATIONS IN THE WORKPLACE: THE LAW PROTECTS THE CALIFORNIA DISABLED
Disability rights include many rights both for the employer and the employee. For example, you may be terminated if you cannot perform your duties on the job. However, the law provides that you must be given reasonable accommodations. This means that if you provide documentation of a qualified disability, you must be given the opportunity by your employer to develop a process to find a reasonable accommodation to allow you to perform your job even with your disability.
Accommodations do not include violating attendance policy, poor work performance, or substandard activity on the job. However, accommodations such as having to miss work for doctor’s appointments, having set breaks in the work day, or other reasonable requests that allow you to perform your job to an adequate degree are all perfectly acceptable.
While there is some disagreement as to whether you must have a “qualified” disability to be eligible for accommodation, all employers must give you the opportunity to engage in a process of accommodations if you even appear to have a qualified disability. A good way to think about it is, if you have a disability that is preventing you from performing the job 100% without accommodations, but there is a way to accommodate your disability to allow you to fully perform your job, you should speak with your supervisor and they must try to accommodate you. If your employer refuses, or sets any sort of rule that you must be completely healed, or able to perform the job without accommodations or be fired, you may be able to sue.
If you believe that you are entitled to accommodations in the workplace, or you have been fired due to your disability and are victim to not having had the opportunity to have accommodations in the workplace, call the Law Offices of Greenberg and Rudman LLP at 1-800-252-9776 for a free initial consultation regarding your rights and how the law can help.
