Diabetes and ADA

calhrgal

We have a VA employee who recently out of the blue has been absent without calling in to her supevisor. When asked about it she indicated that she had diabetes and had "spells" which caused her to black out for an unspecified period of time. She then returns to work the following day. Her manager asked her if there was anything that he/the company could do to accommodate her illness and she indicated that there was nothing that could be done. To give more detail this employee has been with the company since nov. 2002. Prior to this the employee was performing at an acceptable level, but with the unexpected absences, her performance is beginning to suffer as she is assigned to projects that need to get done and with her not being there, there have been issues. The manager is open to working with the employee who is a valuable member of his team. We have advised the manager to document the perfomance issues that are occurring. Is there anything else that we should be doing at this point?

Whatever

What does her doctor say?

LindaS

I think the first thing you would want to do is hand her FMLA paperwork (if your company is large enough to qualify). This would require her to obtain a medical certification regarding her condition and any absences would be counted under her allotment. In addition I would recommend reminding the employee about the requirement to contact the company regarding her absence(s) (if you have a policy for this). I would also provide her with a copy of her job description and ask her to provide this information to her doctor to determine what, if any, accomodations need to be made. If there is a safety issue regarding these "spells", I would address that issue as well.

Keep in mind that just because an employee has a medical condition does not necessarily mean it qualifies under ADA but if you begin treating her as if she is ADA qualified, she automatically becomes covered regardless of the condition.

I would start the FMLA clock running but keep in mind that you cannot count any absences under FMLA when addressing performance.

I know it sounds confusing but I hope I was of some help.

njjel

If the employee has only been with the company since 11/02 she would not qualify yet FMLA leave (assuming your company is large enough to come under the act). Therefore ADA would be the way to go.

Hatchetman

Make sure all the legally required ADA posters are up, that the employee knows of her right to request reasoanble accommodation, and that th econversation between the emplyee and the manager be confirmed in writing to her, including her statement that she didn't want accommodation now because there wasn't anything that could be done. It's a little strange that she would say that in that way, so she may misunderstand what the reasonable accommodation is suppose to do.

In the memo, the manager should at least indicate that if she decided she wants or needs accommdation in the future in order to perform essential duties of the job or to meet requirements of the job, such as acceptable attendance, or calling-in requirements, that she may request themand the compnay will evaluate her request. Then the manager should re-emphasize the expectations for good attendance, timely work, and calling in.

System

There are really two things going on here: missing work and not calling in. She needs to call in unless her blackouts always last eight hours. As for missing work, it seems reasonable to ask an employee for a doctor's note for any unacceptable or suspicious absences, regardless of whether it's ADA.

James Sokolowski
HRhero.com

Nat

I agree with James and caution about using words like accommodation unless you know for sure she has a disability. Like someone else posted, if you treat her like she has a disability then she is covered under ADA. Deal with the performance issues.

Hatchetman

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 06-16-03 AT 11:39PM (CST)[/font][p]Nat, the employee has identified a medical condition and linked it to a problem on the job. The reasaonable linking of a medical condition to a problem on the job is all that is required for the employer to take a look at the interactive process that's established by ADA. By discussing ADA and reasonable accommodation, the employer would not be regarding the employee as disabled. The interactive process assumes that the emplyer does not know if the employee is in fact disabled under ADA and, consequently, in the process is encouraged to discuss reasonable accommodation as part of the process to determine if the employee is disabled and entitled to them. In this case, the process didn't continue because the employee exercised her right to say she didn't want or need reasonable accommodation at this time (of course, as I said in my earlier post, she may have misunderstood).