Staying compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) presents various challenges for employers, and these challenges have only increased in the last two years during the COVID-19 pandemic. There's a lot of complexity in determining what's a covered condition and what's an essential job function.
Louis Richard Lessig, a lawyer with Brown & Connery in Westmont, N.J., discussed some illuminating ADA cases at the SHRM Annual Conference & Expo 2022 in New Orleans and virtually on June 14.
Two of the biggest problems are employees who want the HR professional to be a psychotherapist, and managers who don't care or know the right way to communicate with employees who come in with ADA accommodation requests, Lessig noted.
"The very things you're worried about are the very things the ADA was designed to help," he added. "The challenge is, there [are] people in your organization who don't listen or don't take the time."
Remember that employers must offer reasonable accommodations by engaging in an interactive process with the employee, but the employee also must participate in this process.
"We all know that sometimes employees just want what they want, even if you make them a legitimate offer that's reasonable," Lessig said. "Just because it [the accommodation] doesn't work doesn't mean you'll get tagged, so you shouldn't be afraid. If an employee is not going to meet you halfway, you don't have to do squat. It's true."
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