August 2000

WIN AT WORK MONTHLY

A Community Service of DON D. SESSIONS, A PROFESSIONAL LAW CORP., Employee Rights Attorneys
	Win At Work DEADLINES ON RIGHTS Procrastinators beware—there are deadlines on your rights! Justice, which depends on memories and availability of witnesses and documents, is harmed by undue delay. Possible wrongdoers cannot be held hostage to claims extending without limit into the past. Legal deadlines can be as short as a few days, if you agreed to that in a union contract or arbitration agreement. Many deadlines depend on the nature of the claim, such as one year from the date of whistleblower retaliation or two years from the date of breach of an oral contract. They vary from state to state. The best advice I can give to those who even think they might have a claim is to take action now, have it properly evaluated, then do something about it or put it behind you. Remember, if you fail to make a timely choice, then it will be made for you . . . and you may not like its consequences.		Employee Rights Update ACCOMMODATION FOR A DISABILITY INCLUDES REASSIGNMENT Employers must make reasonable accommodations for individuals with known disabilities (unless to do so creates an undue hardship). So, what is a “reasonable accommodation?” Making facilities accessible to and useable by the disabled, providing readers or interpreters, job restructuring, modified work schedules, acquisition or modification of equipment, or training materials and policies. A recent case ensured that reassignment to another position stays on the list as well. In that case, an employee had difficulty performing her job because of a disability. Though her employer gave her some accommodations, she requested a transfer to another job she could do instead. She won her discrimination lawsuit because her employer would not transfer her. The court held that while her employer did not have to create a job, or take away someone else’s, it did have an affirmative obligation to reassign her if the job was already open and she was qualified. - Sharon J. Ormond, Attorney
		Update on our attorneys - Patrick E. Turner is teaching a law school course on Sexual Harassment in the Workplace at Western State University, College of Law. He is using our casebook on the subject. Don D. Sessions resolved a whistle-blowing case in the six-figure range.
Look for our answers to employees’ questions in the "Shop Talk" column of the Times’ Sunday Business Section or the Register’s "Business Monday" Section. Click here to add (or here to delete) your E-mail address to or from our monthly mailing list. For more employee rights information, click here for our website, job-law.com; here to order our book, Employee Rights in California; or contact our office directly at 23456 Madero, Suite 170, Mission Viejo, CA 92691, (949) 380-0900, (800) 774-7494, mailto:attorneys@job-law.com. The Win at Work portion of Win at Work Monthly is from our ongoing syndicated column appearing in Times/Mirror Publications (including Los Angeles Jobs and Orange County Jobs) and elsewhere. Win at Work Monthly is intended for general information and should not be construed as legal advice or opinion. Readers in need of legal advice should promptly retain the services of an attorney. ©2000 by Don D. Sessions.