Americans with Disabilities Act Archives

CDC Updates Its COVID-19 Guidelines: What Does It Mean for Your Business?

by Lindsay Ditlow, Michelle S. Strowhiro, Abigail M. Kagan and Melis Solaksubasi | Aug 31, 2022 | Employee Benefits, Health and Welfare Plans

On August 11, 2022, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) unveiled its updated COVID-19 guidelines, revising both quarantine and isolation guidelines in the process. The updates reflect the growing number of vaccinated individuals (meaning, those individuals who have received initial doses and all recommended boosters) and past exposures, leading to a greater level of herd immunity than in previous eras of the virus. These adjustments to the CDC’s guidance also serve, in large part, to clarify existing recommendations or to loosen restrictions. This article provides a closer look at what exactly the updated guidance requires and how to best approach these updates in the workplace.

Fired for Not Getting the COVID Vaccine? A Reality for Some, but Not All

by Michelle S. Strowhiro | Apr 5, 2022 | Employee Benefits, Employment, Health and Welfare Plans, Labor

Many employers will likely encourage vaccination rather than mandate it. In this Ladders article, McDermott Partner Michelle Strowhiro notes the administrative burdens associated with tracking mandatory employee vaccination.

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Four Discrimination Questions Employers Have About COVID-19

by Lindsay Ditlow | Feb 25, 2022 | Employee Benefits, Employment, Health and Welfare Plans, Labor

As the world enters the third year of the COVID-19 pandemic, employers have gained a greater understanding about the virus’ relationship with US anti-discrimination laws. With the inevitable rise of future variants and long-haul COVID-19 cases, however, businesses are still navigating murky waters. In this Law360 article, McDermott Partner Lindsay Ditlow offers perspective about worker accommodation requests and what they mean for employers.

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How Employers Can Determine COVID-19 Test Mandate Costs

by Dawn Peacock | Feb 14, 2022 | Employee Benefits, Health and Welfare Plans

Even though the US Supreme Court blocked the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) vaccinate-or-test mandate for most employers, there is still confusion around who covers the cost for employee COVID-19 tests. In this Law360 article, McDermott’s Dawn Peacock outlines what employers need to know.

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As Some Healthcare Employees Work While Sick, Could Other Industries Follow Suit?

by Abigail M. Kagan | Jan 26, 2022 | Employee Benefits, Employment, Health and Welfare Plans, Labor

Throughout the latest COVID-19 wave, some healthcare employers have relaxed safety measures to bring COVID-positive employees back to work. According to this Corporate Counsel article, these decisions may signal a new direction in how businesses deal with safety measures as they navigate a competitive labor market and demand. McDermott’s Abigail M. Kagan noted many healthcare facilities are doing their best to balance employee safety with workplace strain.

“If a patient hears that their nurse has tested positive that morning, the patient may be uncomfortable,” Kagan noted. “ … On the other hand, if it’s the difference between having no nurse, or having a nurse that medical authorities in the (United States) seem to believe is not going to be contagious anymore, that’s something that employers have to think about.”

Vaccine Exemption Requests Put Legal Departments in Tricky Spot

by McDermott Will & Emery | Nov 11, 2021 | Employment, Health and Welfare Plans

As more employers mandate vaccines for their workforces, in-house legal departments are encountering a host of challenges, including understanding religious accommodations and minimizing litigation exposure. According to this article published in Law.com, employers should have the ability to navigate Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Title VII-related accommodation requests. However, McDermott Partner Carole Spink said many employers have never encountered the current breadth of religious exemption requests from their workforces.

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When Is COVID-19 a Disability? Courts Tackle Issue in Bias Cases

by Brian Mead | Nov 3, 2021 | Employee Benefits, Employment, Health and Welfare Plans

A Pennsylvania federal judge recently allowed an employee to move forward with a discrimination lawsuit after her employer terminated her following a positive COVID-19 test result. According to this Bloomberg Law article, the judge noted that COVID-19 could be considered a disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA); however, it’s unclear if the ADA also protects infected workers before they display long-haul COVID-19 symptoms. McDermott Partner Brian Mead said the employee’s presentation of long-haul COVID-19 symptoms (including loss of smell and taste) was also key in the judge’s ruling.

“The difference between having a cough or a substantial lung impairment is the difference between being covered by the ADA or not covered,” Mead said.

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Four Things To Know About COVID ‘Long-Haulers’ At Work

by McDermott Will & Emery | Aug 31, 2021 | Employee Benefits, Employment, Health and Welfare Plans

Research continues to shed light on COVID-19’s long-term health effects for some people, and these “post-COVID conditions” will create additional challenges for employers.

In this Law360 article, McDermott partner Carole A. Spink says employers should be aware that long-haul COVID symptoms mean additional accommodations for employees.

“As they have done throughout the pandemic, employers should have a plan for addressing potential long-term absences as a result of post-COVID effects. On the practical side, at some point employers may need to determine whether a particular situation has become such that providing a continuing reasonable accommodation would pose an undue burden,” Spink notes.

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What if a Job Applicant Discloses a Disability?

by Laurie Baddon | Aug 5, 2021 | Employment, Labor

What should employers do if a job applicant voluntarily discloses a disability during an interview?

In most cases, employers cannot ask disability-related questions until after an applicant receives a conditional job offer, according to McDermott’s Laurie A. Baddon in this Society for Human Resource Management article. Once the employer makes a conditional offer, the employer can ask disability-related questions and require medical examinations for any applicant. Employers can ask applicants about their ability to perform essential job duties with or without accommodation.

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COVID-19 Laws and Regulations: A Midyear Update

by McDermott Will & Emery | Jul 22, 2021 | Employee Benefits, Employment, Health and Welfare Plans

As employers navigate evolving COVID-19 state and federal rules, workplaces will have to stay vigilant about changes throughout the second half of 2021. These include changes to mask mandates, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s Emergency Temporary Standard and the New York Health and Essential Rights (HERO) Act.

Recent US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission guidance, for example, confirmed what employment lawyers had already been counseling businesses to do, according to McDermott partner Carole A. Spink in a recent Law360 article.

“The guidance was important because it did clarify that employers can provide incentives for voluntary programs. [There] was a big open question about, ‘Am I going to get into trouble because I’m trying to incentivize people to be vaccinated?'”

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