Every person who can perform the essential or required parts of a job should have equal rights and opportunity to do it. However, sometimes, due to their physical, mental, or medical disability, they are often denied. This is what the anti-discrimination laws in California stand to work against. And, these laws, especially, the ADA and the FEHA, operate to help aggrieved people affected by disability discrimination get over this ugly trend.
In this week’s blog article, you’ll get to know certain important things about how the law works against workplace disability discrimination in California.
What’s Workplace Disability Discrimination?
Disability discrimination has a lot to do with the abnormal treatment of any person due to imbalances or perceived deformities in either their physical or mental state or because of their genetic or medical condition.
Many canny employers use this situation to weed out otherwise qualified but disabled people from working with them. The occurrence of this attitude to potential or existing persons in a work situation is what qualifies as workplace disability discrimination.
Major Applicable Anti-Discrimination Laws in California.
As a Californian, you can be protected against disability by two laws.
- The Americans with Disabilities Act – on the Federal scene
- The Fair Employment and Housing Act – at the State level
These legislations aim to ensure everybody enjoys employment opportunities free of discriminatory practices. This applies with or without any purported or perceived mental or physical disabilities on the part of the employees.
The impairments that are considered Disabilities
Of note is the point that not all disabilities that are discriminated against can form a cause of action before the courts. So, you need to advert your mind to the qualified series of impairment.
These disabilities happen to be
- A mental disability
- A physical disability, or
- A medical or genetic condition.
Legally assessing a physical, mental, or medical condition may be a hurdle to be scaled for employees. Why? They must pass a certain test to be protected under both federal and state laws. The specific test now has to do with the category the disability of such an employee comes under.
Physical Disabilities
The most common forms of disability are physical ones. Most times, these physical disabilities are anatomical loss, cosmetic derangement, bodily state that touch one or more of the main systems and restricts the main life activity.
How to prove an employee is physically challenged?
To prove that an employee suffers from a physical disability, they must usually show three things:
There must be physical impairment of any of the major body systems. Again, an employee can show that they have some health impairment that takes some special education. And ultimately, they may also prove disability by showing they have a history of some medical condition(s).
Which Categories of Employers can I hold responsible?
It’s certainly not all sorts of employers that you can walk up to alleging them for discriminatory practices against you. In California, any of the employers you can be held responsible fall within the categories outlined here
- Persons or organizations that usually hire five or more employees.
- Persons or organizations reputed as an agent or representative of an insured employer
- Federal, State, or local organizations.
It’s important to note that religious groups and religious nonprofits do come under an exemption from the above-mentioned categories.
Who are those entitled to protections?
- Employees
In California, one of the employment practices that can be taken as unlawful is when an employer discriminates against ‘a qualified individual’ in a work scenario. In this context, an employee refers to any person who is under the control and supervision of an employer. To come in as an employee, the employee needs to have had some agreement with the employer to be compensated. The compensation may be in form of monetary payment, or some higher appointment, or some other equities.
- Job Applicants
Aside from compensated employees, the disability laws in California also apply to individuals who apply to become employees. Many times, certain persons have been denied job opportunities not really because they do not meet the required standards to effectively render their services, but because certain employers often decide to exclude certain sets of people due to their disabilities.
- Independent Contractors.
Although independent contractors do not enjoy protection from disability or medical condition discrimination, the anti-discrimination laws in California, however, give a level of protection against the infliction of work-related harassment from them. Here, by ‘an independent contractor’, we mean to refer to anyone who offers a definite service without supervision, and they have a level of control and tact as far as achieving their results are concerned. Oftentimes, they charge a particular sum of money for a specific service.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Is there any difference between the FEHA and ADA?
Yes, there are a few of differences between both laws. While both laws address discrimination issues, one, the FEHA, is the Californian version while the other, the ADA, remains the federal counterpart. However, FEHA offers more protection for employees that are disabled.
- 2. Between the ADA and the FEHA Act and Law, which one should I seek my protection under?
To be definite, although the FEHA is modeled after the ADA, it is important to know that FEHA rather provides a higher level of protection to employees who might have been injured or aggrieved due to discriminatory practices. As a result, that poses some sort of higher standard for employers to comply with. So, as a Californian employee, you can always bring the claims for relief under the FEHA as it offers a greater level of protection.
- How many employers does my employer need to have before I could bring a disability lawsuit?
Even though there is an anti-discrimination law in California that attempts to discourage discrimination from the work areas, however, the law does not affect small employers. This is then to say if you are an employee under an organization that employs lesser than five (5) people, you may enjoy little to no access to the enjoyment of this disability right. Flowing from this, to take your employer to the courtroom, that employer must have had at least five persons under their hire. Even at then, seeking legal counsel or consultation would prove a better idea.
