Disability &employment question

[Laurie_C]

What is the name of your state?
Arizona

A friend and I work at a small rehab hospital and she is a respiratory therapist and I'm an LPN. Both of us suffer from chronic pain due to different illnesses. She has some nerve damage but it has never affected her work. She is able to perform all of her duties. The only problem she's had is that she's been late several times in the past few weeks because the hardest time for her is when she wakes up. They have been making her work overtime because they don't have enough help and we work 12 hour night shifts to boot. Now work is insisting that she sign a paper stating that she is disabled. She is terrified to do this because she thinks that she will lose her job if shedoes sign it. How can we find out about disablity laws and working in the medical field? I need to know because I may find myself in the same situation soon so we would both benifit from the information. Thank you! [email protected]

 

[Katy W.]

Now work is insisting that she sign a paper stating that she is disabled. She is terrified to do this because she thinks that she will lose her job if shedoes sign it. How can we find out about disablity laws and working in the medical field? I need to know because I may find myself in the same situation soon so we would both benifit from the information. Thank you! [email protected]

The ADA covers employees witha physical or mental disability that limits one or more lmajor ife activities. If this fits you or your friend, the only way to get protection under the ADA is to identify yourselves as disabled to your employers. If you are covered by the ADA you can ask for reasonable accommodqation for your disabilities. An example of an accommodation would be a later start time than normal. An accommodation can't cause undue hardship to your employer.

All fields of work have the same ADA benefits. Your employer cannot legally discriminate against you because you are disabled.

You should go to www.eeoc.gov and read up on the laws.

 

[cbg]

Katy is correct. They cannot fire her BECAUSE she is disabled.

However, I'd like to add that unless the employer and employee specifically agree that a reasonable accomodation would include coming in late on occasion, nothing in the ADA requires an employer to overlook her frequent tardiness. Nor does anything in the ADA require that she be given the accomodation she wants, even if it is the accomodation her doctor recommends. The ADA does not grant special privileges; it levels the playing field. She CAN be fired for any reason not specifically covered in an accomodation for which a non-disabled employee would be fired, and she CAN be fired if there is no accomodation which will allow her to perform the essential functions of her position.

They may be asking for this signed agreement that she is disabled, as a first step towards starting the accomodation process. It's not the way I'd go about it, but it was also the first thing I thought of, before I'd even finished reading your post, and nothing else in your post changed my mind. However, if I'm wrong and they immediately fire her upon her signing that document, she can file a complaint with the EEOC for wrongful termination.

Has she asked them their purpose in requiring her to sign this statement?