Big Changes Afoot for Americans with Disabilities Act
One question I get from clients fairly often is whether an employer is required to continue offering employment to an injured worker following his on-the-job accident. As far as the Florida Workers' Compensation Law is concerned, the answer is no. Although §440.15(6), Fla. Stat. (Supp. 1994), formerly imposed a fine on an employer with more than 50 or more employees which failed to offer appropriate employment within 30 days after the employee reached maximum medical improvement, that section was repealed in 2003. (Of course, §440.205 prohibits an employer from retaliating against an employee for pursuing a workers' compensation claim, but that's another story).
And although the Americans with Disabilities Act does prohibit discrimination by a covered employer (i.e., one with 15 or more employees) against an individual with a disability with regard to the hiring or discharge of its employees, because of several decisions from the U.S. Supreme Court which defined "disability" fairly restrictively, many individuals have found it difficult to obtain relief under the Act. The "ADA Amendments Act of 2008," however, now pending before Congress with apparently large bipartisan support, is designed to overrule those decisions. You can read a report about the proposed legislation here. More later on how the legislation might affect an employer's obligations to rehire or retain its workers disabled because of an on-the-job accident.
