arthritis and/or degenerative joint disease

Paige

Anyone have experience with an employee who has one or both of these problems? It would probably qualify for ADA wouldn't it?

Our situation is--we have an ee who has been working for us since June in our dishroom. He has recently complained of back pain and has taken off of work for it (explaining to us that he has had this problem--it's not work related). So today he brings in a note from a doc, dated 5/5/03, stating that he should be doing only light, sedentary work b/c of degenerative joint disease and arthritis in his knee and hips!!

So--he's working against doctor's restrictions, but now I'm wondering if I have to look at this from an ADA point of view and accommodate him, if reasonable.

Paige

Hatchetman

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 10-16-03 AT 04:28PM (CST)[/font][p]Yes, you should go through the interactive process to establish if he qualifies as disabled under ADA, unless you would accommodate him anyway.

The term "degenerative" isn't specific enough to establish that he has arthritis that signficantly impairs HIM now in a major life activity, like walking, or standing, or sitting. That's part of what the interactive process will determine.

And yo need to determine what would be reasonable accommodations if he is ADA disabled. Remember, its all based upon indivdualized assessment, so there is no one standard answer that fits all situations.

Go to EEOC's guidance on ADA, reasonable accommodaitons and undue hardships at

[url]http://www.eeoc.gov/docs/accommodation.html[/url]

Margaret Morford

Hatchetman is correct. You need to go through the process of determining if he's disabled under ADA. With that said, there are a lot of cases out there that recognize these conditions as ADA eligible. Depends on how limiting it is.

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