Pre Existing Medical Condition-Now a liability
jhellpap
1 Post
I have an employee that came into our company with a minor medical condition. He didnt disclose any of it to us because he felt it wasnt a medical issue. We hired him and the job began to cause much stress, leaving him unable to do anything that was asked of him up front.(I.E. travel, sporadic work schedule, etc) He was unable to perform his job duties and is a liability to our company by falling down in the office, so what do we as the employer have to legally do for him? We were going to put him on short term disability, yet he just brought a return to work release from his doctor for Monday. Any help would be appreciate as I am new to labor laws and employee medical conditions. We are also under 50 employees so we dont offer FMLA at this time.
Comments
I would strongly suggest reading up on ADA here : http://www.eeoc.gov/facts/ada17.html It's my go to source as a small employer. It's applicable if you have more than 15 employees.
Did his doctor have a copy of the job description from the employer that included the travel, schedule, tasks, etc? If not and you are noting issues like "falling down" and unable to perform some of the essential functions, I would send him for a 2nd opinion to a doctor provided by the company. We use the same doctor(s)/clinic that we use for WC claims to do these types of evaluations. This is one reason some companies do a "fit for duty" physical for all new employees. But part of that decision needs to depend on your industry and location.
Has he asked for any reasonable accommodations or done anything that makes you think this could possibly be a disability as defined under ADA?
Even if ADA applies, if he can't fulfill the essential functions job duties (travel, sporadic schedule) without undue hardship to the employer, then ADA would not apply even if his condition fell under ADA. But from what little you have posted "minor med condition", it's hard to know.