Legal Question in Employment Law in California
ATTN: NEED HELP ASAP WITH DISABILITY LEGAL MATTER
Background: I was on disability for a lumbar surgery and returned to work part-time with doctor prescribed restrictions in May 2014. Eventually my employer and I worked things out to meet the restrictions. At the end of August 2014, my doctor authorized that I can return to work full-time but with driving restrictions. I have talked with my employer and HR to discuss this. My employer originally agreed, and has the capacity to return me to full-time and accommodate my driving restrictions. However, due to a specific incident with struggle with work performance in August 2014 (this did not involve a write-up), my employer has now withdrawn their offer to accommodate my driving and allow me to work from home or within my home county several days per week. They now state that there is not enough computer or direct client work to substantiate my need to work from home/in-county. They have told me that my choices are to either return to full-time work as requested, but have to drive to their out-of-county office more days than prescribed by my doctor, because "that's where the client need is," or sign-off to reduce my hours to part-time such that I can keep my current schedule that already includes restricted driving.
Basically I was commuting 3 days per week, working from home/in-county 1 day per week, to substantiate a modified 32 hrs per week schedule. My doctor has stated that I can return to work 40 hrs per week, but continues to feel that my back cannot withstand the stress of more commuting and has kept my commute to a limit of 3 days per week. My employer had offered to meet this by providing more in-county client hours combined with online paperwork approval for the two days not commuting. I turned several work notes in "late" for the month of August. My employer now states that paperwork approval from home is not an option, and that there aren't enough client hours for me to work in-county, therefore if I want full-time, I have to agree to more client-hours...which means commuting out-of-county to where the other clients are.
Questions:
1) Is this discrimination?
2) Does my employer have to follow what my doctor's note prescribes?
3) What are my legal rights? And what legal actions can I take against my employer should they choose not to meet my medical needs?
4) What are the legal repercussions to my employer should they refuse to comply with the doctor's note?
5) Does my employer have a legal obligation to abide by my doctor's note/medical needs, regardless of my job performance?
Thank you so much for your help.
Sincerely,
Stacey Koch
Santa Rosa, CA
1 Answer from Attorneys
You are entitled to "reasonable" accommodation of a legitimate disability and need, and no, the employer does not have to do whatever your doctor says for it to be considered 'reasonable' on their part.
These facts buy you into a potential lawsuit if you can't resolve it with the employer. There would be no guarantees of success, and these facts are no better than grey area the whole way. This is classic contested litigation material, and a judge or jury would end up deciding who they favor, who they like, who they dislike, and most importantly, who has been 'reasonable' in their demands and behavior.
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