The following article was first published on Shipman & Goodwin attorney Dan Schwartz’ Connecticut Employment Law Blog. It is reposted here with permission.
The Connecticut Appellate Court officially released a decision April 7 that provides some useful (if straightforward) guidance for HR professionals and employment lawyers in the state.
In Hanke v. Electric Boat Corp., the court affirmed summary judgment in favor of the employer on all three counts—disability discrimination, failure to accommodate, and retaliation—in a case that touches on some of the most frequently litigated issues in disability law.
If you’ve been reading this blog, you know that the intersection of disability leave, the interactive process, and employer termination policies has been a recurring theme here since 2008, when the Connecticut Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Curry v. Allan S. Goodman, Inc. first established that state law (not just federal law) requires employers to engage in an interactive process with disabled employees seeking accommodations.
Hanke adds another important chapter to this developing body of law—and this time, the facts provide a good example of what employers should be doing.
Stuart Hanke was an engineering supervisor at General Dynamics Electric Boat who stopped reporting to work in September 2019 after a series of performance issues, including a prior suspension for sleeping during a meeting.
He applied for and received short-term disability benefits for...
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