What an Employer Can and Cannot Do Under ADA
by: New Mexico Legal Aid
An employer may want to discriminate against disabled persons.
He does not want to hire them.
The person who hires workers for the employer feels the same way. The employer knows this.
If the employer lets the person who hires workers discriminate, he is guilty of discrimination.
Because one disabled person is a problem, another should not be blamed.
The employer must make changes in the workplace that are not too much to ask. These are called reasonable accomodations.
He must make reasonable accomodations when the person applying for the job is skilled in it. He must make reasonable accomodations when they don't create a real hardship for the business.
There are times when he can use tests to screen out persons with disabilities. This happens when he can show that the tests are job related. It also happens when they are a part of business needs.
A test has to show two things about the person being tested.
It has to show the person's qualifications and disability if there is one.
Unless it does these things, the test cannot be used.
Any person can apply for a job. He cannot be asked if he is a person with a disability.
An employer may ask all his workers to take a physical exam before they are hired.
If he does, he can ask the same of a person with a disability.
|
