On November 4, 2014, the EEOC announced that it reached a settlement of a disability discrimination in employment suit it filed against a Chicago marshmallow manufacturer. The employer agreed to pay 5 employees a total of $85,000 but most importantly agreed to change its leave policies. The basis of the lawsuit was that the employer’s strict leave policy which capped the maximum duration of employee leave violated the Americans with Disabilities Act because it did not allow for a longer leave as an accommodation for a disabled employee.
The Family Medical Leave Act allows employees to take up to 12 weeks of leave for a serious health condition without fear of losing their job. Some employers have established strict policies that automatically consider any employee who has exhausted their FMLA leave and is still unable to return to work to have resigned their employment. The EEOC’s position is that this sort of policy violates the ADA because a leave longer than 12 weeks may be a reasonable accommodation under the ADA.
Wisconsin employment attorneys know that Wisconsin’s disability discrimination laws embodied in the Wisconsin Fair Employment Act have historically offered broader protections to employees than the federal law. Wisconsin law has consistently held that it is inappropriate to conclude, as a matter of law, that any particular kind of action is not required as an accommodation under the Wisconsin Fair Employment Act. There are decisions which confirm that under the WFEA, depending on the circumstances and length of the additional leave, employers have an obligation to provide disabled employees with leave in excess of the 12 weeks allowed under the FMLA.
However, Wisconsin laws provide for significantly smaller monetary recoveries for employees whose rights have been violated. Under the WFEA, employees who are victims of workplace disability discrimination are not entitled to recover compensatory and punitive damages. The EEOC’s case against the Chicago marshmallow manufacturer is encouraging for Wisconsin employees and the Wisconsin Employee Rights Attorneys who represent them because it is a strong signal that the 2008 amendments to the ADA are truly broadening the federal rights of disabled employees as they were intended to do.