Firing Employee for Disability-Related Tardiness Results in ADA Lawsuit
Although this isn't a workers' compensation case, I think it illustrates how an employer's decision to terminate a disabled worker's employment for violation of one of its policies can have unintended consequences.
This Florida employer had adopted what it called a "no-fault" policy for absences and tardiness. Under its policy, an employee's absence from or tardiness to work was neither "excused" nor "unexcused." No doctor's excuse was required. However, each employee was allotted a certain number of "occurrences" before disciplinary action was taken, and each tardy - no matter what the reason - counted as one-half of an "occurrence." The employee in this case was a paraplegic who despite his condition had been performing his job satisfactorily for 17 years. Nevertheless, his medical problems routinely made him late for work. Because of his disability-related tardiness, he eventually earned a sufficient number of "occurrences" under the employer's new policy to warrant his dismissal.
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