Navigating the Maze of ADA and FMLA Compliance: The Interplay Between the Laws - Part 4

Why Should You Attend:

This session will highlight the interplay between ADA, FMLA, and other overlapping leaves of absence laws that managers and HR professionals must understand. In fact, in FY 2015, disability discrimination continued to be the most frequently litigated issue by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).

Violations of these laws may result in lost wages, back pay, reinstatement, retroactive benefits, compensatory damages, and punitive damages. It is one thing to understand the requirements of both pieces of social legislation, it is quite different to apply them. In this session, attendees will learn the practical strategies and procedural recommendations that will enable them tackle the challenging FMLA and ADA issues they confront every day.

This webinar in the series will discuss and explain major provisions of FMLA and ADA and provide an outline for untangling the multitude of obligations employers face under the two laws, as well as integration with other leave laws.

Learning Objectives:

• Recognizing and analyzing the interaction of the ADA, FMLA and workers’ compensation laws
• Overview of the differing purposes of the three laws and their enforcement authorities
• Review of the more important areas of interplay between the three laws that employers need to consider when managing employee absenteeism
• Handling workers’ comp claims that have ADA and FMLA ramifications
• How and when to coordinate FMLA and workers’ compensation
• Strategies for reducing absenteeism and impacts to productivity
• General best practices and more discussed

Areas Covered in the Webinar:

• The overlapping requirements of the FMLA, ADA, and workers’ comp
• Managing the interplay between leave requirements under ADA and FMLA
• Handling workers comp claims that have ADA and FMLA ramifications
• How and when to coordinate FMLA and workers’ compensation
• Determining which laws apply to any situation
• Quick guide to the requirements of each law
• Analyzing whether a current situation implicates any of these laws
• Considering other laws

Who Will Benefit:

• Human Resource Managers/ Administration
• Benefit Specialists
• Supervisors
• Business Owners
• General Managers
• Risk Managers
• Controllers/ CFOs / Financial Managers

Instructor Profile:

Cathleen Hampton has more than 25 years of experience as a human resources professional providing subject matter expertise in areas such as human capital and work force planning. She has a unique ability to analyze operations for risk and help maneuver cultural practices and compliance enhancements that would increase organizational outcomes. Risk as defined as financial, operational, as well as from a more general workforce planning perspective. As a dyed in the wool HR professional, she continually looks for ways to capture the essence of strategic thought as it would relate to human capital and workforce planning. She is noted for launching new programs focused on talent acquisition and retention strategies that outpaced major completion through strong and decisive business leadership.

Topic Background:

The confusion created by the overlap of the FMLA and the ADA is yet another example of good intentions gone awry. Congress passed these two laws without considering how they would interact, and the regulatory agencies contributed further to the uncertainty by providing only minimal guidance. As a result, most employers must devise their own rules for applying the sometimes conflicting laws to an employee’s leave of absence.

One particularly vexing issue that employers are often faced with is the confluence of FMLA and ADA concerns that arise when an employee experiencing a serious health condition – which may also qualify as a disability for purposes of the ADA – is approaching the end of his or her FMLA leave allotment. While the employer’s obligations under the FMLA can be determined by reference to concrete obligations imposed by that statute, the obligations imposed by the ADA frequently require a case-by-case determination of whether the accommodation needed by an employee is reasonable under the circumstances. The interplay between these statutes frequently causes significant headaches for employers. This issue was recently taken up by the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland.

The EEOC has aggressively litigated ADA pattern-or-practice claims and taken numerous individual ADA lawsuits to trial. Among others, the EEOC challenged reasonable accommodation issues, attendance plans, and wellness programs. In addition, in commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the ADA, the EEOC and DOJ released a Memorandum of Understanding to streamline coordination of investigations of disability discrimination complaints.

• Employers deal with multiple obligations under federal, and state laws when employees take time off for illnesses and injuries. Many illnesses and injuries are FMLA serious health conditions as well as covered under the American’s with Disabilities Act. The same employee illness or injury that is a “serious health condition” may also constitute a “disability” and bring with it another obligation under the ADA.
• A very commonly asked question is “how do I make sure I comply with the provisions of FMLA and the ADA?” Or, “what are FMLA and the ADA companion laws that must be considered when someone has a serious health issue?”
• These are excellent questions, and ones that every manager and HR professional better be asking themselves if they wish to stay out of trouble.
• The majority of unscheduled and scheduled absences are related to the illness of employees or their family members. One, both, or all three of these laws may be involved.

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