Takeaway: Employers are within their rights to ask for clarification of an employee's accommodation request and to ask for medical certification of the disability and the need for requested accommodations.
A call-center representative for Amazon with Crohn's disease who sought scheduling and location accommodations could not prove disability discrimination after he was fired for forwarding calls to other representatives, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled.
Amazon hired the plaintiff as a seasonal customer service representative at a Kentucky-based call center. The job required him to troubleshoot with Amazon customers over the phone, duties Amazon tracked by requiring employees to maintain an "aux status." That status showed the representative's current activity, such as being on a call, attending a meeting or going on break. Amazon policy afforded the plaintiff various types of time off and required that, when he took a break, he needed to log it via his aux status.
Shortly after his hiring, the plaintiff disclosed to an HR professional that he had a chronic illness that required him to frequently visit the restroom without notice, and he asked for additional break time as needed. Amazon viewed the inquiry as a potential accommodations request under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and gave the plaintiff various forms to complete to allow Amazon's Leave of Absence Accommodations (LOAA) team to obtain the necessary information, such as medical...
Baltimore Police Officers Mordechai Mandelbaum and Menachem Rosenbloom were found guilty on multiple charges on Wednesday, Oct. 14, following an encounter that ended with a surrendering man being ...