Compliance Perspective:
The Compliance Officer should review with the Risk Manager the facility’s policies and procedures regarding the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) as it relates to the facility’s employees and their potential need for the facility to provide intermittent leave or other reasonable accommodation options for employees with disabilities. Employees should be educated about the facility’s policies and procedures regarding disabilities and its reasonable accommodation options. The Compliance Officer should ensure that staff are surveyed periodically regarding their understanding of the facility’s policies regarding disabilities.
A U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) lawsuit filed recently is charging that a major health insurance provider in Hawaii violated federal law by denying intermittent leave to a class of employees with disabilities and not discussing other possible reasonable accommodation options. This blanket policy forced employees to either work without an accommodation or to resign.
According to the EEOC’s lawsuit, beginning in late 2013, HMSA abruptly changed its policy on the use of intermittent leave as an accommodation for employees with disabilities. In addition to not allowing employees this accommodation, HMSA failed to engage in the interactive process with its employees to determine if there was another accommodation available for them. Instead, the company gave employees an ultimatum of either working without an accommodation or resigning, the EEOC said.
Such alleged conduct violates the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The EEOC filed suit in U.S. District Court for the District of Hawaii after first attempting to reach a pre-litigation settlement through its conciliation process. The EEOC’s suit seeks back pay along with compensatory and punitive damages for the claimant and class, as well as injunctive relief intended to prevent and address discrimination.
The regional attorney that includes Hawaii in its jurisdiction made this statement, “employers who fail to try to reach such an accommodation arrangement are opening themselves to possible EEOC action.” Then, the director for the EEOC’s Honolulu Local Office, issued this statement, “Blanket employment policies that negatively affect a group of individuals can be discriminatory. Employers should routinely audit their policies and practices to make sure they are not unlawfully discriminating against their employees.”
