Los Angeles Disability Discrimination Lawyer

Discrimination on account of disability is prohibited by federal and state law, but statistics show that misconduct by California employers is still a common occurrence. According to the California Civil Rights Department (CRD), disability consistently ranks as one of the top reasons that employees file workplace discrimination claims every year. Employment disability discrimination laws provide you with remedies if you were subjected to different treatment because of a medical condition.

Legal Protections for Employees With Disabilities

In California, the Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) protects employees from discrimination based on disability and requires employers to provide reasonable accommodations so that employees with disabilities can perform their jobs.

Generally speaking, California’s definitions and protections for those with disabilities are broader than those provided under federal law.

What Counts as a Disability Under the FEHA

A disability under the FEHA is defined in California Labor Code section 12926 as a mental or physical condition that limits a major life activity. This includes mental or psychological disorders or conditions, emotional or mental illness, or specific learning disabilities, as well as physiological diseases, disorders, conditions, cosmetic disfigurements, or anatomical losses. The condition must make it difficult to achieve major life activities, such as physical, mental, and social activities, and working.

Examples of conditions that may be considered a disability include:

• HIV and AIDS;
• Chronic conditions, including heart disease, respiratory conditions, hypertension, and diabetes;
• Depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, and related psychiatric disorders;
• Hearing and vision problems;
• Paralysis or loss of limbs; and
• Many other medical conditions that limit a person in performing routine life activities.

If you believe your condition qualifies, consulting a disability discrimination attorney can help clarify your options.

Reasonable Accommodations and Employer Responsibilities

Employers subject to the FEHA must provide reasonable accommodations to employees with disabilities. This means making existing facilities accessible and usable; restructuring jobs, schedules, assignments, materials, or policies; reassigning the employee to a vacant position; providing or modifying equipment or devices; and other similar accommodations.

But, employers are only required to provide “reasonable” accommodations, which means those that do not cause an undue hardship to the employer. Undue hardships include significant difficulty or expense when compared to other factors, such as the nature and cost of the accommodation, the financial resources and size of the business, and the impact on the operations of a facility.

Employees are also required to show that they were otherwise qualified and able to perform the essential duties of the job with or without reasonable accommodation. In other words, employers are not obligated to provide reasonable accommodations that modify the core fundamental duties of the employee.

The Interactive Process for Reasonable Accommodations

Employers in California must engage in a timely, good faith, interactive process with the employee under the FEHA to determine what reasonable accommodations can be provided. It is meant to be an individualized assessment to determine the needs of the employee and whether reasonable accommodations can be provided without undue hardship. 

The employer is required to engage in the interactive process upon a request for reasonable accommodation or if the employer is aware of the possible need for an accommodation. The failure to engage in a proper interactive process is an unlawful employment practice. 

Common Forms of Employment Disability Discrimination in the Workplace

Disability discrimination in the workplace typically takes place in one of several ways. 

Failure to initiate the interactive process or participate in good faith

The obligation to hold one is triggered by an employee’s request for reasonable accommodations. But the employee may not specifically use the phrase, “request for reasonable accommodations”. This does not necessarily relieve the employer of its obligation to initiate the interactive process, because the request itself, other observations by management, or requests or comments made by other employees, may cause the employer to become aware of the potential need for an accommodation. Other times, the employer holds an “interactive process” but never had the intention of providing any reasonable accommodation. 

Refusing to provide reasonable accommodations

Employees may be forced to perform their duties without reasonable accommodations, meaning that the employee’s performance may be unfairly and negatively affected. Examples include refusing time off requests for medical care, breaks, to provide a stool or chair to sit for temporary periods of time, or to modify a schedule.  Oftentimes, an employer might claim a requested accommodation causes an undue burden or impacts an essential function of the job, when it does not.

Retaliating against an employee for requesting reasonable accommodations

It is also an unfortunate reality that after requesting a reasonable accommodation, many employees are subjected to retaliation, which is illegal. Employers figure that it is easier to get rid of an employee who has these needs, and claim that the employee cannot perform the essential functions of the job, or that performance was poor. Employers might retaliate in other ways, such as otherwise making the workplace so intolerable as to cause the employee to quit, which may constitute a wrongful or constructive termination. 

If this happens, a disability discrimination lawyer can help protect your rights.

How Can a Los Angeles Pregnancy Discrimination Attorney Help My Case?

Pregnancy discrimination may be difficult to perceive or prove because it may often be subtle or discrete. For example, if someone is not hired for a position, one can only assume that it may have been because that person was pregnant. 

An experienced litigation attorney helps an employee identify the potential claims and ensures the valuations of those claims are fair and proper under the circumstances.