On March 25, 2020, Governor Inslee signed an amendment to the Washington Paid Family and Medical Leave (WPFML) program (SHB 2614). This bill doesn’t have anything to do with the current pandemic. Instead, it makes technical corrections to the WPFML program, to ensure the intent of the original bill is intact. The…
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The United States has been hard hit by coronavirus in the past week and Vigilant has received a variety of questions from members about this evolving situation. We previously reported on how to handle situations with employees who seek to return to the workplace after traveling to areas affected by…
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Question: We have an employee who had a seizure at work, causing him to space out and forget things for a few minutes. He took a few days of leave to recover and seek medical treatment. When he came back, he told us he has epilepsy, but he brought in…
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Question: One of our employees failed a random drug test. He says the positive test occurred because he was prescribed methadone by his doctor to treat his addiction to opiates. Do we have to retain him? We’re concerned about safety. Answer: If your drug testing process had included the services of a Medical…
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Question: We have an employee who is acting strangely, including making paranoid comments about coworkers sabotaging her work. I investigated, but found no evidence to support her allegations. The employee continues to complain. Can we require her to contact our Employee Assistance Program (EAP) and attend any counseling sessions recommended…
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Question: Is it okay to have the language “other duties as required” in a job description? Answer: Sure, it’s common to include that catch-all language in a job description. However, you shouldn’t rely on that language to incorporate regular duties that are important for the particular job. Under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), an employer…
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An employer in Missouri is finding out the hard way that balancing the competing rights of employees can be complicated. In this case, a coworker with Tourette’s syndrome regularly and repeatedly shouted racial slurs at an African American employee. The employer tried to separate the workers so they didn’t have to work…
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The US Department of Labor’s Job Accommodation Network (JAN) has released a comprehensive Workplace Accommodation Toolkit which provides employers with resources and tools needed to create a more disability-inclusive and compliant workplace. The toolkit contains practical solutions for workplace accommodations, coaching on the interactive process, and training on the basic obligations of…
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A federal district court recently ruled that a police department complied with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) when it required a bomb squad technician to undergo a fitness-for-duty exam. Their justification? The city had an objective basis for the fitness-for-duty exam request. In this case, the technician was experiencing hand…
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Effective January 1, 2019, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has officially rescinded its regulations that allowed employers to offer wellness incentives of up to 30 percent of the cost of employee-only health coverage. As we previously reported a year ago, a federal district court determined that the EEOC didn’t have…
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