DISABILITY DISCRIMINATION

(415) 342-4125

An employer has two main obligations regarding employees with a physical disability, mental disability, or medical condition - an employer must provide a reasonable accommodation and an employer must engage in a good faith interactive process.  Failure to do either may constitute disability discrimination.

Reasonable Accommodation - an employer must provide a reasonable accommodation for the known disabilities of applicants and employees to enable them to perform a position's essential functions, unless doing so would produce an undue hardship to the employer's operations.  A reasonable accommodation may include making facilities readily accessible to and usable by disabled individuals, a leave of absence for a reasonable time to allow an employee to recuperate or heal, job restructuring, offering part-time or modified work schedules, reassignment to a vacant position, acquiring or modifying equipment or devices, adjusting or modifying examinations, training materials, or policies, and providing qualified readers or interpreters.

Interactive Process - an employer has an obligation to engage in a timely, good faith interactive process with an employee or applicant to determine effective reasonable accommodations, if any, in response to a request for a reasonable accommodation.  An employer must initiate the process if the employee's disability is known or apparent.

If you would like to discuss your legal rights regarding workplace accommodations, give Martin Velez a call. You may reach him at (415) 342-4125 and at martinvelez@comcast.net.

Mr. Velez represents employees throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, including Alameda County (Fremont, Hayward, Oakland, and Pleasanton), Contra Costa County (Antioch, Martinez, Richmond, and Walnut Creek), Marin County (San Rafael and Novato), Napa County (American Canyon and Napa), City and County of San Francisco, San Mateo County (Daly City, Menlo Park, and Redwood City), Santa Clara County (Mountain View, Palo Alto, and San Jose), Solano County (Fairfield and Vallejo), and Sonoma County (Petaluma and Santa Rosa).