Getting Back to Work After Your Accident

If you suffer from a severe accident, you may find yourself frozen out of your job because your employer illegally discriminates against you. Beth federal and Kentucky laws prohibit job discrimination based on disability, but there are many fine points and qualifications. Whether these laws protect you depends on your condition and the nature of your job.

What are Employment Disability Discrimination Laws?

There are different types of disability discrimination laws. They cover the following:

• Housing: An apartment may need to make modifications for a tenant with a wheelchair to live there
• Public accommodations: Someone with a physical disability may be unable to move around a store because the aisles are too narrow
• Employment: An employer may refuse to hire someone because of a disability, deny them a raise, or fail to provide a reasonable accommodation for them to do their job

There is a state employment disability discrimination law and a federal one, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The most significant practical difference is state law covers employers with as few as eight employees, while the ADA is for employers with 15 or more. If there are more than eight but less than 15 employers where you work, state law is your only option. If there are more than 15, you can claim protection under both.

Do Employment Disability Discrimination Laws Cover Me?

Both laws are similar. Under the ADA, to have protection you must be a “qualified individual” because you, with or without reasonable accommodations, can perform the job’s essential functions. You may fall into this category if you:

• Have a mental or physical impairment substantially limiting one or more major life activities
• You have a record of a disability
• Your employer perceives or regards you as disabled, whether or not you are

What does it mean to have a substantially limited major life activity?

• Major life activity: This is something central or important to daily life. It may be seeing, walking, breathing, hearing, caring for oneself, standing, sitting, learning, lifting, learning, thinking, working, performing tasks central to daily life, and reproduction
• Substantially limited: An impairment substantially limits a major life activity if you can’t perform it how an average person can or you’re significantly restricted in the condition, duration, or manner of doing so. Your impairment is “substantially limiting” if the limitation is significant, severe, considerable, or to a large degree. This must be a serious, long-term condition, not a minor, short-term one

Depending on what accident happened and the nature of your injury, you may have a mental or physical impairment severe enough to qualify you for legal protection. If such an impairment is in your past, you’d have a record of it. If your employer believes you are that impaired, you would be protected whether or not that belief is correct.

How Can Employment Disability Discrimination Laws Help Me After an Accident?

If the laws cover you, and you missed work, you should be returned to your former position (assuming it wasn’t legitimately eliminated during your absence), as long as you can perform its essential functions with or without a reasonable accommodation.

Essential functions are primary job duties that you must perform. Factors to consider when deciding if a function is essential include the following:

• Whether performing the function is the reason the job exists
• How many other employees are available to perform the function
• How much expertise or skill is needed to perform the function

Your employer would be obligated to give you a reasonable accommodation to your disability to do your job if that change doesn’t pose an undue hardship to them.

A reasonable accommodation is a change or adjustment to your job or work environment that allows you, a qualified employee with a disability, to perform the essential functions of your job or to enjoy the benefits and privileges of your job equal to non-disabled co-workers.

A reasonable accommodation could be the following:

• Acquiring or changing equipment or devices
• Restructuring your job
• Modified or part-time work schedules
• Taking a different, vacant position
• Making your workplace readily accessible and usable

An undue hardship would be an accommodation that is unduly:

• Costly
• Extensive
• Substantial
• Disruptive

It would also be unduly burdensome if it would fundamentally change the business or its operation. Factors in this decision include the following:

• The accommodation’s cost
• The employer’s size and financial resources (an expensive accommodation may be reasonable for a large, profitable company but not for an employer that’s small and struggling)
• The structure and nature of its operation

Your employer can’t condition your accommodation on you paying for it, or that you earn less or have no or fewer benefits than if you never became disabled. In the future, your employer can’t refuse to give you a raise, transfer, or promotion because of your disability or request for accommodations, which would be considered retaliation, which is also illegal.

Speak To A Personal Injury Attorney Today

If someone else’s negligent or intentional acts injured you or a family member, Satterley & Kelley PLLC attorneys are here to help. We will protect your best interests and ensure you get the compensation you deserve. You do not have to deal with this alone.

Call our office in Louisville toll-free at 855-385-9532) to have a free initial consultation to discuss what happened and your legal rights. You may also complete our contact form if it’s more convenient.