Law Office of Arkady Itkin
Law Office of Arkady Itkin - San Francisco Injury / Wrongful Termination Lawyer   Contact Us at (415) 295-4730
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 An Example of a Potentially Illegal AWOL Notice Violating Disability Laws

11/26/2013

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Below is an example of a potentially illegal and discriminatory AWOL notice that one of our clients has received. This document alone shows how the employer is trying to disregard the rights of an employee to (additional) medical leave as an accommodation. The employer - state agency - unfairly leverages the language of the applicable AWOL provisions to terminate an employee who is potentially entitled to a number of rights and protections under ADA and FEHA.
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When AWOL Rules and ADA / FEHA Disability Rights Collide

1/31/2013

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One common scenario where AWOL (Absent Without Leave) rules and an employee's FEHA/ADA disability rights collide and conflict is state agencies and other employers that have set and rigid AWOL policies that they apply to everyone universally. The two common problems with such policies repeat themselves over and over in many wrongful termination claims, and these bad policies can work to an employee's advantage in proving their case in court:

* Rigid, uniform AWOL policies that are applied the same way to all employees. Even though it sounds fair to apply the same leave policy to all employees, it goes completely against the very essence of ADA and FEHA disability laws, which call for an individualized assessment of a qualifying disabled employee's disabilities, restrictions, and limitations. Indidivually evaluating a disabled employee's needs is a cornerstone of the "interactive process" in which the employer is required to engage in with a disabled employee.

* The language of the AWOL government code statute and other AWOL related statutes makes granting leave discretionary. The AWOL rules typically say that an employee who is out for a certain number of consecutive days without "approved" leave may be deemed AWOL resigned. The problem is that whether that leave is approved is completely up to the management. A manager may decide not to approve a disabled worker's medical leave for whatever reason, even though all the necessary medical documentation to support the requsted medical or disability leave has been provided.  

The above two issues open a lot of doors for some employees, and especially state and county employees, terminated due to being AWOL, to legally attack their termination in court through a wrongful termination and/or disability discrimination lawsuit.  

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A Lesson from the Court: the Importance of Requesting Accommodation to a Disability

11/25/2011

 
The King v United Parcel Service (2007) case makes several important points about disability related employment case. One of those lessons is the importance of requesting accommodations to a disability, or at the very least alerting and informing the employer about the disability or the medical condition that you suffer from, the symptoms you are dealing with and how they affect your ability to perform your job duties. 

In King, a 30-year employee of UPS was terminated for allegedly falsifying a time card just two months after returning from medical leave in connection with a serious medical condition. The rare and somewhat unique element of the case is that the Court of Appeal was pretty clear in expressing sympathy toward the Plaintiff, even though the Court held against the him, dismissing all claims. In that case, the Court analyzed all of Plaintiff's claims and noted that the claim for failure to accommodate was a close one but still had to be dismissed because the terminated employee did not communicate his symptoms to his employer upon return, did not request any kinds of accommodations, and therefore the employer simply was not on any kind of notice of King's need for accommodations. This mistake is so easy to avoid through a simple request for reasonable accommodation letter that every employee who needs and accommodation should fill out and forward to his superiors and the human resources department. 

Please read below the full text of the court's decision in the King v UPS case. 

When Your FMLA Leave Expires

10/8/2008

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Many employees suffering from a disability or a particular medical condition qualify for FMLA leave, under which they are entitled to be placed on unpaid leave for up to 12 weeks in a year, assuming that certain FMLA conditions are satisfied. 

However, very few employees are aware that upon expiration of FMLA leave, they might be entitled to additional time off as a reasonable accommodation to their disability / medical condition. Under California law, an employer must engage with an employee in a good faith interactive process to find out if the employee may be provided reasonable accommodation to his or her disability / medical condition at workplace. One of those reasonable accommodations can be extending the employee's leave beyond FMLA leave, unless this extended leave would impose undue hardship on the employer's business. An employer who fails to engage in this interactive process to investigate whether reasonable accommodations can be provided to the disabled / sick employee may be liable for disability discrimination, failure to accommodation and other violations of employment laws in California. 

If you believe that your employer did not fulfill it's obligation under California law and you would like to discuss your situation at workplace, contact San Francisco employment attorney Arkady Itkin for a free, no-obligation consultation.

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Law Office of Arkady Itkin - San Francisco & Sacramento Injury and Employment Lawyer
We represent employees and employers in employment and wrongful termination cases, as well as victims of serious injuries in San Francisco, Oakland, Sacramento, San Jose, Palo Alto, San Mateo and throughout Northern California. 


57 Post Street, Suite 812, San Francisco, CA 94104; Tel. (415) 295-4730; Fax. (415) 508-3474; arkady@arkadylaw.com
Photo used under Creative Commons from Ernst Moeksis