Lawyers fight for discriminated employees with disabilities. Even employees perceived or regarded as disabled are protected under federal and state laws. Performance improvement plans – maybe you took recent sick leave to care for yourself or someone else and are now on a performance improvement plan called a PIP. Call lawyers who represent discriminated employees as soon as possible. Accommodating disabilities and and sick leave – maybe you recently underwent surgery or took leave for another health issue and your employer refuses to help you get back to work. https://urbaemploymentlaw.com/work-comp-injured-employee-might-be-discriminated-if-fired/ Employers have a duty to reasonably accommodate employees. It starts with an interactive process for accommodation. Severance agreements – maybe you are being offered a severance package close in time to an illness, surgery, or because you need more time to recover or because you are helping someone else who is ill. Don’t sign anything without asking an employment lawyer to review it first. Many employees are powering through many types of disabilities at work today as the following video describes: Video transcript discussing laws protecting employees, considered employees with disabilities, when those employees no longer abuse or are addicted to drugs or alcohol, plus all employees prescribed medication who are under no obligation to reveal their prescriptions to employers, but for some employers strongly encouraging mind altering substance use at work: I’m Jonas Urba, a New York employment lawyer, here with Employment Law Reality Check. If an employer has a policy that consuming alcohol is part of the job is that good or bad? Well, let’s take three situations. First, a recovering alcoholic, or someone that abused drugs or alcohol, was addicted to drugs or alcohol in the past, and now no longer uses drugs or alcohol, is protected. They are considered a disabled person. And as long as they do not return to the addiction of drugs or alcohol, they are protected as disabled persons under several laws, federal and state. ADA, Rehabilitation Act, New York State Executive Law, City Human Rights Law, and other laws. So an employer that is encouraging or insisting on alcohol consumption may have a disparate impact on employees who don’t drink or previously had an addiction to drugs or alcohol. Secondly, many people who do not wish to disclose medications they are on or any type of conditions, mental health conditions or physical conditions, they don’t want to tell their employer about those. They have no need to do that. There’s no requirement that an employee disclose underlying conditions to the employer. However, if the employer is requiring or insisting or encouraging alcohol consumption at work, and that employee is taking prescription medication, which can have an adverse effect on the medication by consuming alcohol, that’s a real problem. That opens the employer up to potentially affecting the employee’s health. And the employee potentially has to disclose information to the employer which they would never have to disclose but for the requirement of consuming alcohol on the job. And finally liability. If an employer encourages, insists, requires that employees consume alcohol on the job, not only do they have the safety issue on the workplace premises and once they leave the workplace, but also the liability issue of what happens when we have a discrimination complaint, someone says something, alcohol is not a defense. It’s no more a defense than marijuana today. Marijuana is legal in the state. But that doesn’t mean that it’s ok to be consuming it on the job, just like with alcohol. There are many considerations which employers fail to consider before instituting either formal or informal policies about consuming mind altering substances on work premises. So if you have those situations call some employment lawyers. You can call me. I’m Jonas Urba. I serve the entire state of New York and I can be reached at (212) 731-4776. Attorney advertising. Stay safe. Are you looking for litigators who fight for employees with disabilities? If so, make sure to call early. Did you receive a NORTS letter from the EEOC? Do you need help in federal court or before New York’s Division of Human Rights? Disabilities at work are covered under several laws which may include other claims under: Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 The Americans with Disabilities Act as Amended The Federal Rehabilitation Act The New York State Human Rights Law known as The Executive Law Close to 60 videos are posted on a YouTube channel called Employment Law Reality Check. 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