Legal Question in Disability Law in Indiana

Can I get fired for being sick?

You aren't going to like the responses to thisquestion under the Americans With DisabilityAct. The answer is probably yes.

Unless your company has a history of usingpart timers, or work sharing, they don't haveto start a new precedent with you, I think themajority of courts would currently agree.

Does that violate the spirit, if not the letter of the ADA? Probably. But it is a newstatute and its legislative history speaks toVOLUNTARY compliance.....those of us who haveserved in the military know old military maxim"never volunteer".

If your company has more than 50 employees inthe prescribed geographic area you may becovered under the Family Medical Leave Act.How that would be parsed out, would dependin some measure on the state you live in...

The question boils down to "reasonableaccomodation". Is requiring your employerto allow you to work less than 30 hours a weeka logical and legal burden to place upon it?(I am not looking for YOUR answer here, I assume it is 'yes'). This is a hard questionto answer. How necessary to your job functionis your presence for a full day? How aboutovertime....is it an integral part of thenecessities of your job? Then it has to befilled by someone who can do that job.....

There is no easy answer to this question, which is vexing the courts and lawyers andmakes it hard to be on the cutting edgeof any new law, such as the ADA. People onthe cutting edge tend to get cut.

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The question may not be an ADA issue...

Hi, In addition to the opinion above, I would add that if the reason they have now required 30 hrs/week is not reasonably related to your disability, then it will not be covered by the ADA no matter how sick you are. The problem is that employers KNOW this, so they always create another reason for the 30 hours, to evade the letter, if not the spirit of the ADA. Further, the discrimination has to be on account of your disability, and the disability has to be significant. Stomach pain, MAY not qualify, so in addition to the problems of reasonable accomodation, you have to be a "qualified person with a disability" which is a legal phrase over which again there are differing points of judicial view.