Each year, countless disabled employees are discriminated against on the job by either their colleagues or supervisors. Many of these workers feel justified in continuing to discriminate against others because they’ve never been told that their actions are wrong. This often happens because disabled individuals aren’t exactly sure of the civil rights that they’ve been afforded under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990. This federal law outlines what’s considered to be disability discrimination.
You should know that while many employers are required to abide by federal laws that prohibit disability discrimination, not all are. Any private employer that has 15 or fewer employees is not required to abide by such laws.
Prospective employees aren’t required to disclose if they have a disability when they apply for a job vacancy. Employers who are required to abide by the ADA are also prohibited from allowing an individual’s disability to impact whether they decide to hire, promote or demote them. Such legislation also prohibits employers from harassing their employees or paying them less because they have a disability.
Disabled workers are also entitled to request that their employers make special accommodations so that they can adequately or more effectively perform their job duties. Employers are prohibited against repetitive, unwarranted medical inquiries, however.
An example of workplace discrimination of disabled individuals include customers, colleagues or bosses making inappropriate gestures, jokes or derogatory comments about disabled workers.
It’s also illegal for employers to ask you about a disability if you haven’t disclosed one to them before.
Employers who refuse to make reasonable accommodations to give a disabled employee a chance to succeed may be deemed to have engaged in discriminatory actions. Any company that fails to hire or promote an employee or to pay them equally to others in the same role just because they’re disabled may be found to have discriminated against the employee as well.
There are strict deadlines in place to which you must adhere when filing a New Jersey disability discrimination claim. It can take time for you to build the necessary evidence to adequately prove your case. This is why you must consult with a workplace discrimination attorney if you’ve been subjected to ill-treatment at the hands of your employer. Your Burlington lawyer can advise you of whether your case warrants filing a claim and of any deadlines that you must meet.
