Part Time employee

HRManager

My question is, we have a part time employee who recently underwent back surgery. At the time of surgery, he was full time.
He is asking for us to buy him a better chair. If he gets a note from his doctor, do we have to pay for this? We are in Minnesota.

Gar

If his condition is a temporary one, he's not disabled under the ADA. But check the disability laws of your state. I'd provide the chair as a good will gesture, but under the ADA you aren't obligated if it's a temporary condition.

HRManager

Who would decide if his condition is temporary? Would we have the right to ask his doctor?

Hatchetman

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 02-16-02 AT 12:37PM (CST)[/font][p]I will assume that your company falls under federal ADA or a similar Minnestora state law.

Without getting into whether or not the employee has a medical condition that significantly impairs one or more major life actiivites, a medical condition under ADA can be either permanent or long term. Thus, if it's a long term medical condition that significantly impairs one or more major life activities, the employee could qulaify as disabled. "Long term" isn't defined, but there have been some court rulings that seem to imply about a year, although tjhey are based more on the specifics than a generalized approach to a definition; thus don't consider the 11 or 12 months that HAVE been looked at to be set in concrete,

You do have a right to know how long the "impairment" is going to last as part of your determination of whether or not the employee is disbled under ADA. Thus you can and should obtain that information from the doctor by asking how long the employee will have the significant impairment to a major lfie activity, ASSUMING there is one.

Even assuming that the employee is qualified as disbled under ADA at that point, there are two aspects to the reasonable accommodation that you should consider:

1. There may be more than one reasonable accommodation that would allow the employee to perform the essential duties of the job. So, when you ask the doctor about the imapirment, to establish whether or not the employee is disabled, ask the doctor what types of accomodations is he suggesting that would allow the employee to perform the essentiald duties of the job (send the doctor a job description). Perhaps instead of a chair, standing mroe frequently or a special pillow or something else can be done. You only need to provide the accommodation that is effective, not necessarly the one the employee wants or the most expensive or even the best.

In this regard, the Job Accommodation Network [it's a non-profit organizaiton operating under the auspices of the Presidential Committee on the Handicapped]may be able to provide some suggestions other than a chair -- or -- if a chair is utltimately decided on, to identify some chairs that would fit the need. JAN is on the web. The telephone number is 1-800-ADA-WORK.

2. It is possible, in some situations, especially those related to undue financial hardship, for the employee to pay for the equipment or split its cost with the employer, or for the employer to front the cost of the equipment and the emplyee to repay ove3r a erpid of time, although the primary burden is on the employer to provide the accommodation.

Ruskanen

I would agree with Gar. If you like and want to keep the employee, your only consideration should be, what is the cost of the chair vs. what is the cost of replacing the employee? But if you feel the employee could make the situation more complicated, that's another issue.

Margaret Morford

I think there is one other concern with this situation and that is once I buy a chair for this employee, how many more will I have to buy when the other employees see it? We had the same situation in a $1 billion company. An $800 chair would seem to be a reasonable accomodation. However, it was in our call center with 125 employees, all of whom would want the "star wars" chair when they saw it. We got the employee's permission and spoke with the doctor inquirying why our current chairs (We had good chairs) were not sufficient. The doctor told us this individual needed more lumbar support than our chairs offered. We purchased a $12.00 lumbar pillow and the accomodation was made. I also had one employee who was suing for an off-the-job car wreck. His lawyer had gotten with his doctor and determined that he needed a very expensive chair. There was some concern that the lawyer was trying to bolster the employee's case. We agreed to purchase the chair for the employee, who signed an authorization for the cost to be deducted in payments from his pay check. No one was interested in his chair once they knew he was paying for it. Hope this helps you.

Margaret Morford
theHRedge
615-371-8200
[email]mmorford@mleesmith.com[/email]
[url]http://www.thehredge.net[/url]

Gar

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 02-19-02 AT 02:27PM (CST)[/font][p]His healthcare provider should be able to answer that question. And no, you should not contact the employee's healthcare provider without his permission. That's an ADA violation. I'd simply ask the employee to obtain the info from his healthcare provider and go from there.

Theresa Gegen TX

What I would generally do is give the employee specific information to give to his health care provider (for example a description of the current chair you have available and a description of an alternative chair you could provide or a description of the modification you could provide (for example a lumbar support)) and have the employee bring back the doctors written advice on which modifications would help the employee.


Good Luck.

Hatchetman

If you are going to contact the doctor directly through phone call or correspondence then get a "release" from the employee. I personally believe it is better for the employer after the initial request to contact the doctor directly, via letter with a copy going to the employee. That way the doctor can provide information directly to the emplyer and a better determination can be made. But that is something you work out with the employee when the request is made. EEOC does envision that contacts betweent the employer and the physician are possible.

Aaron H

Does this mean that you suggest getting permission from employees before talking to an examaning doctor in order to provide temporary alternative duty? If so, what if the employee does not give permission? How can you assign TAD?

Aaron

Ruskanen

When we've needed to clarify information from the employee's doctor, we've had a doctor that we work with for our on the job injuries call on our behalf. Or, you can tell the employee exactly what you need to make the accomdation and then ask them to get the information from their doctor. That will show you how serious they are about the accomdation if they have to do the footwork themselves.

Hatchetman

If and when the employee is requesting reasonable accommodation, it seems to me the more complex the situaiton, the more likely it is for the employer to be in contact directly with the employee's doctor to get clarification on issues to help make a better determination of the qualification for accommodation, under ADA, and the type of accommdations that the doctor sees as appropriate, if "eligiblity" does exist. I think a doctor would probably get a little irked, and the employee too, if the employer had to repeatedly bounce things back and forth for clarification through the employee rather than directly communicating with the physician.