The US employment law is highly focused on addressing all forms of discrimination by the employer. Discrimination of persons with disabilities is one of the most critical areas of concern in the US discrimination laws. The law is grounded on humanization of the persons with disabilities which involve designing the policies to reflect and expand their human potentials (Mackelprang, Salsgiver, & Salsgiver, 2016). The employment law is the aftermath of other national agendas that include quality education and specialized training programs (Francis, & Silvers, 2015). The Americans with Disabilities Act (1990) provide the guidelines needed to fulfill the agendas by the employers in all the sectors. The law focuses on ensuring that persons with disabilities are given equal opportunities to recruitment for a job if they have the skills needed to complete the task. The law calls for extra responsibility to the employers to include comfortable working conditions for them. The recruitment process, for instance, requires that the interview need to respond to the skills and abilities without reflecting on the disability (Barnes, 2014). The law also gives the employer an initiative to develop policies and workplace etiquette that recognizes and empower the disabled persons. This calls not for treating them as weak personnel’s in the company who require special environments but rather people with special abilities that can only be fulfilled through a highly specialized system. The Americans with Disabilities (Act) is a significant law that was championed by Senator Thomas Richard Harkins and signed into law by President Bush in 1990. The law has undergone other several amendments to enhance its effectiveness in the improvement of the well-being of persons with disabilities in the labor market (Heyer, 2017). This amendment includes the ADAAA (2008) that helped to clarify the law definition of disabilities distinguishing disabilities from impairments. The law is a set of rules and regulations that govern the response to persons with disabilities in various facilities, both private and public.
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This paper will reflect on the American with Disabilities Act and how this law regulates the relationship between employer and employees with disabilities in the contract period. Although the law has not accomplished all the objectives, it’s a primary management tool for use by the employers. The law also edifies the employees with disabilities of their rights. This law has implications to both the employer and the employee. The paper will first focus on the Americans with Disabilities Act reflecting on its guidelines, achievements, and limitations in reducing discrimination of employees with disabilities by the employers. After this, the paper will present the employment policies and etiquette that arise for managers and other employees following the objectives of the humanization of persons with disabilities (Rothman, 2018). This will be the shortest section of the paper. The third element of the discussion is the employer’s role, or the reasonable accommodation’s that the employer is required to fulfill in compliance with the law. The fourth element is the empowerment of the employees with disability through training to maximize their utility to the employer throughout the contract period.
Like the other employees without disabilities, they have a responsibility to fulfill all the tasks as would be required by the employer. The next elements are the aspects of the law that offer a guarantee to the limitations of the employees’ demands. The last portion of the paper is on the position of the American efforts for the protection of the rights of persons with disabilities in the global context. These include the assessment of the personal impact of the law on the American citizens compared to other citizens. The American with Disability Act is the primary employment law that governs the employer-employee relationship in the private and public sector and hence its objectives highlight the legal guidelines that govern terms of the contract for employees with disabilities and the eligibility of those contracts.
The Americans with Disability Act (ADA or ADAAA)
This is the most significant legal framework defined for the rights of the persons with disabilities for fair and equitable treatment by employers in the recruitment and contractual periods. The law defines clearly that persons with disability have equal employment rights provided they are competent to perform the tasks assigned. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission got the initial mandate to implement employment discrimination provisions, Title I of the Act. In other words, the law is more focused on the empowerment of persons with disability and as such the employers are the primary target of the law. The EEOC has defined regulations for the employers as a guideline to the implementation of the requiring compliance for all employers. The law provides for equal opportunities to persons with disabilities. In other words, employers are prohibited from discrimination of persons with disabilities during the recruitment process. This means that interview questions and requirements should be fair such that the persons with disabilities will stand an equal chance like other candidates. For instance, employees need not to ask the candidate how they would overcome their situation to perform any task. This guideline is also useful to the employers as they are not subjected to compulsory recruitment of persons with disabilities when other candidate standouts better chances. The role is to demonstrate that the candidate was only ruled out on factors other than those affiliated to disability.
Also See: Rules of Law against Employment Discrimination.
The ADA provides for the employer not to recruit persons with disabilities if such recruitment would impose an undue hardship to the operations of the business. The undue hardship is considered as imposing excessive costs to an employer or would demand the employer to change the operations. In other words, the hiring of persons with disabilities need not change the roles and responsibilities of a given position (Riccucci, 2018). For example, hiring a disabled employee as a machine operator requires that the recruitment mandate the employer to make provisions to the employee to perform their tasks, but the hiring should not lead to the abandonment of the said task. ADA clarifies on the differences between impairments and disabilities defining the positions for ADA impairments. This was best achieved during the 2008 amendment. To the employer’s disability is considered as the inability to perform tasks in what would be considered normal for human beings. For example, blindness is regarded as a disability and as such the employee would only fulfill their obligations through the use of particular structures. The court dismisses a case against an employer if the persons filing the suit fail to meet the ADA disability description. Another consideration will be that an employee would not demand special treatment by being left handed or if they have certain personality traits like quick temper. The ADA law requires that a condition would be considered in its unmitigated state. In other words for a person with an impairment if mitigation action has been taken to overcome the challenge such an employee would still qualify for ADA disability provision. For example, a person with hearing impairments and who uses hearing aids and it enhances them to hear like the general population is considered to qualify for the ADA disability. This means that the hearing aids do not overwrite the hearing impairment. This provision is a new circumstance and as such employers would be advised to seek counsel before dismissal for ADA applicants since the mitigated impairments previously unconsidered for protection would otherwise qualify for protection.
The ADA law gives guidelines on the need to uphold a high level of confidence in the employee and need to be initiated through the same process. For instance, a new employee is to be offered training in equal measures to disabled employees like employees without disabilities without a call for other employees to show special to the persons. This means an employee needs not to feel humiliated before others based on their condition. The employer needs to be updated on the most recent requirements of the law to ensure plans are based on the existing provisions of the law.
Employment Policy and Etiquette
The implementation of the guidelines by the ADA calls for employers to incur more costs in the hiring and management of employees. The law calls for the employers for change in the attitude focusing on the need to empower the employees with special abilities. An employer needs to hold the primary role to demonstrate that humanization of persons with disabilities is parts of its core agendas. The employer’s policies and regulations are called upon to challenge the limitation of ADA law. The employer has a responsibility to support the employee to exploit their abilities and to enhance the achievement of the company objectives. Even after the establishment of the law, the persons with disabilities have not experienced increased access to employment opportunities as the law intended it. This means that most of the other aspects of the law that would govern the contractual relationship between the disabled employee and the employer have less impact within the job market. The government has increased its policies focusing on bridging the gap between the employment of persons with disabilities with the rest of the population (Blanck, 2016). The employer is required to be updated of such policies since they are of legal significance. The systems require an employer to give considerations as part of its commitment to enhancing economic empowerment for persons with disabilities.
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An employer is advised to have own policies and guidelines for compliance with ADA which are guided by the EEOC rules and regulations. This would mean that in a lawsuit regarding discrimination for persons with disabilities a court judge is mandated to make a judgment based on the company own policy in addressing discrimination against persons with disabilities. The company policies must not contradict the requirements of ADA or the policies by EEOC. This means that the law calls for the organization to take reasonable accommodations to persons with disabilities. The effort needs to be continuous such that an employee is not forced to abandon their current job based on negligence by the employer to make special provisions.
Employers Role/Reasonable Accommodation
This governs the contractual relationship between the employer and the employees with disabilities. A qualified person with disabilities is to be considered as a person who with or without special accommodations can perform their roles in the organization. In this case, the task will be performed without a need to change the business itself. In other words, the employer has a role in making all provisions that would enhance persons with disabilities to perform their roles like other employees. In the review of the performance of an employee the entities that facilitate, this effectiveness need to be put in place. For example, a telephone operator who requires an amplified headset to give equal results is entitled to those provisions before judgments based on poor performance. The employer needs to accommodate a dialogue with the employees to ensure that the correct accommodations are given. For instance, an employee with low vision could request the employer to accommodate large font options in their printed documents. If such documents include Memos, the employer may seek to offer to accommodate the employee through use of soft copies specific for them. Both the employer and the employee need to come into an agreement on the best approach to ensure it’s the most convenient decisions. This consideration would be most effective especially if there are no specifications by ADA or the EEOC on what accommodations to make for the given impairment.
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The employer also needs to follow the five guidelines in the recruitment process to ensure that the employee would demand only reasonable accommodations. The first step is to consider only the essential tasks in the evaluation of whether the person can perform the job. This is important because potential candidates have several limitations for multiple tasks and would most likely be ruled out. Also if accommodations would be considered after hiring, they must also be related to fulfillment of the essential functions (Kaminer, 2016). The second factor is to find all the accommodations which are necessary to the tasks assigned. In other words, once the employer has assigned a contract with the disabled employee, there would be a need for commitment to fulfill all the accommodations that enhance fulfillment of the essential tasks. The other requirement for the employer is to ensure that employees with disabilities are treated equally to persons without disabilities. Also, the employer can fulfill this obligation by providing that they have the highest qualified personnel in their workforce and the accommodations are not extended to disability non-related interventions. For example, training the employees need to be within the scope of standard employee training or for the use of special facilities that would help improve performance.
Also See: Constitutional Law for Criminal Justice. U 5-2
The scope of the accommodation given to persons with disability is to allow the employee to fulfill their obligations without overreliance on job coaches or other persons. The employer needs to commit to updating the accommodations without an assumption that any of the accommodations would be impossible. This would include integration with other employers to increase the scope of the interventions. The employer also needs to utilize sites like the Job Accommodation Network that provide a wide range of ideas on accommodation of persons with disabilities. The employer also needs to evaluate the effectiveness of the accommodation issued such as to ensure improved performance by the employees. Some of the accommodations are not related directly to the tasks but empower the employee to exploit their potential and to develop their career. Issuance of accommodation is to be extended to the recruits or persons with disabilities arising at the course of their career.
Training Employee’s with Disabilities to Maximize Utility During Contract Period
After hiring and providing accommodation, ADA requires that the employer considers employees who lack proper skills to use some of the facilities. This is most common to persons receiving impairments later after recruitment. For instance, an employee who becomes deaf at the course of fulfillment of their duties may require some basic training for communications like the use of sign language. The employer needs to provide or facilitate such treatment without dismissal of an employee that they cannot fulfill their obligations. Others may include mobility training, and the employer must ensure that the employee is not in grave danger at the course of fulfillment of their responsibilities (Padkapayeva et al., 2017). The facilities and the accommodations would be useless if the employees cannot entirely understand them. In this case, there is a need to see that the employees have more than one tool for training to fulfill a given responsibility effectively. Also, the training mechanisms need to incorporate facilities not available in the organization but can be utilized in other public facilities. There are thus minimal limitations as to the scope of the interventions that would be useful to the employees. An employee with a disability is to stand an equal chance to perform their responsibilities efficiently like other colleagues.
Guarantee Offered to The Employer to Safeguard Effective Contracts
ADA gives a guideline as to what would be termed as a reasonable accommodation to be issued by the employer to the employee. The law protects employers over what would otherwise be termed as unreasonable accommodations. There is a clear guideline on the ADA impairment that qualifies for an accommodation. The accommodation need to help employees perform their role in the organization. The law is limited to the benefits and privileges of employment. In other words, the employee is not guaranteed to make additional accommodations which are not directly related to the job. An employee may not demand accommodations that involve they are not entitled to perform in the organization. The employee who files a suit must be deemed to have the ADA impairment. Lawsuits filed by employees fail to meet the minimum requirements for ADA impairments will be dismissed. Although the law is defined to protect the employee over discrimination by the employer, it has the framework within which accommodation would be issued. Also, an employee cannot claim for discrimination on promotions for roles that they are not qualified to perform. In other words, the law does not call for blanket laws that override the needs for an employer to acquire the most qualified personnel to work in the organization.
American Disability Act Effectiveness
The economic well-being of persons with disabilities remains low. Employers consider the ADA guideline as an increase in the cost of hiring. This means that the primary objectives of the law have not been achieved. The numbers of persons with a disability who are hired for any position are relatively lower compared to the persons without disabilities. In other words, the employment of persons with disabilities remains significantly lower compared to the other population. One of the reasons could be that like other employment law there is no provision for sufficient change of attitude on disabled persons as weak in the organization. The law is operational, and the employer must meet all the necessary requirements in their relationship with the employer. Like other laws for discrimination, the impact of the law is well understood when an individual company is a victim of any allegation. One of the areas that the disabled employees would need to be most informed is on the recruitment process. There are many shortcomings reflected by the continuous decline in the employment of persons with disabilities.
Conclusion
This research addresses the employment law on discrimination to persons with disabilities in the United States. The scope of the research is on the employees working in the private sector. The primary law that governs discriminations to persons with disabilities is ADA which advocates for humanization of persons with disabilities. The law gives a guideline to the employer for fair recruitment and management of employees. The objective is to treat employees with disabilities like all the other person providing the necessary accommodation to fulfill the assigned tasks. The law defines the ADA impairments to restrict focus only to fundamental impairments and for reasonable accommodation only (Sundar, 2017). This guarantees employers rights over unreasonable claims. The hiring of persons with disabilities is to be guided to ensure that the company is not exposed to undue risks. In other words, hiring a person with a disability is not to squeeze the organization to change its primary operations to accommodate the limitations of the employee. The discussion also outlines the provision of reasonable accommodation as a critical responsibility for the employer.
References
Barnes, C. (2014). What a difference a decade makes: Reflections on doing ‘emancipatory’disability research. In Ethics and Research in Inclusive Education (pp. 55- 70). Routledge.
Blanck, P. (2016). The first “A” in the ADA: and 25 more “A” s toward equality for Americans with disabilities. Inclusion, 4(1), 46-51.
Francis, L., & Silvers, A. (Eds.). (2015). Americans with disabilities. Routledge.
Kaminer, D. N. (2016). Mentally ill employees in the workplace: Does the ADA amendments act provide adequate protection. Health Matrix, 26, 205.
Mackelprang, R. W., Salsgiver, R. O., & Salsgiver, R. (2016). Disability: A diversity model approach in human service practice. Oxford University Press
Padkapayeva, K., Posen, A., Yazdani, A., Buettgen, A., Mahood, Q., & Tompa, E. (2017). Workplace accommodations for persons with physical disabilities: evidence synthesis of the peer-reviewed literature. Disability and rehabilitation, 39(21), 2134-2147.
Riccucci, N. (2018). Managing Diversity In Public Sector Workforces: Essentials Of Public Policy And Administration Series. Routledge.
Rothman, J. (2018). Social work practice across disability. Routledge.
Sundar, V. (2017). Operationalizing workplace accommodations for individuals with disabilities: A scoping review. Work, 56(1), 135-155.
A great read. Please keep up the good work.