Finally: EEOC offers a wider perspective on what’s required in ADA leave

by Christian Schappel

There are several things employers want to pay close attention to in the EEOC’s latest document covering the ADA. 

Ever since the EEOC started suing employers for not providing disabled employees with leave as a reasonable accommodation under the ADA, employers have been waiting for guidance on the issue.

Finally, the EEOC has delivered … sort of.

While it stopped short of issuing “official guidance,” it did just publish a resource document entitled, “Employer-Provided Leave and the Americans with Disabilities Act.”

It’s not considered official guidance because it wasn’t voted on by the entire commission. But it does provide a lot of the info employers have been seeking on when and how leave under the ADA must be considered/granted.

Here are the topics the document covers and what employers need to know from each of those sections:

Equal access to leave under your leave policies

• If an employer receives a request for leave for reasons related to a disability, and the leave falls within the employer’s existing leave policy, it should treat the employee requesting leave the same as an employee who requests leave for reasons unrelated to a disability. (Example: If you don’t require non-disabled employees to provide a doctor’s note to support a leave request, you can’t require disabled employees to provide a doctor’s note.)
• Employers are entitled to have policies that require all employees to provide a doctor’s note or other documentation to substantiate the need for leave. But the requirement must be applied to all individuals equally.

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