September 8th, 2009Are you disabled and just got hired or are still in the process of looking for a job? Then listen up to what the ADA (Americans with Disability Act) is telling employers what they can and can’t do after you get hired.
Basic rule: After making a job offer, you may ask any disability-related questions and conduct medical examinations as long as you do this for everybody in the same job category.
Practice tip: You may withdraw an offer from an applicant with a disability only if it becomes clear that s/he cannot do the essential functions of the job or would pose a direct threat (i.e., a significant risk of substantial harm) to the health or safety of him/herself or others. Be sure to consider whether any reasonable accommodation(s) would enable the individual to perform the job’s essential functions and/or would reduce any safety risk the individual might pose.
Examples of what you can do:
- If you want to give a medical examination to someone who has been offered a job that involves heavy labor, you must give the same exam to anyone who is offered the same kind of job.
- You may withdraw an offer of a manufacturing job involving the use of dangerous machinery if you learn during a post-offer medical exam that the applicant has frequent and unpredictable seizures.
Example of what you can’t do:
- You can’t withdraw an offer to an HIV-positive applicant because you are concerned about customer and client reactions or because you assume that anyone with HIV infection will be unable to work long and stressful hours.
If you’re disabled and got hired and then got the ax after you started work, were you discriminated against? Can you sue? How do you go about doing it? Don’t wait until it’s too late to file a claim. Better yet, arm yourself ahead of time so you recognize the warning signs.
INSTANT DOWNLOAD: Get Work Laws Exposed, written by an employment law attorney…the good kind, one that’s on your side.
