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Overview

Please note: While this webcast is open to all EIA members, some of the Eyres Law Group Services are available only to members of the PWC and/or GLl programs.

Managing workplace accommodations following an injury or acute illness is challenging. Dealing with these issues for employees with chronic conditions is even harder. Chronic illnesses are generally defined as those lasting a year or longer and can include inflammatory joint disease, heart disease, diabetes, respiratory ailments, recurring allergies, environmental sensitivities, episodic anxiety, and more. According to the CDC, 40% percent of U.S. workers have at least one chronic ailment, and another 20% have two or more. This webcast will help you deal with these increasingly risky situations.

Conditions such as chronic pain, inflammatory joint disease, chemical dependencies or other ramifications from injuries or treatment, are impacting both industrial claims and non-industrial situations. Obesity is one of the newest “diseases,” identified by the American Medical Association that has significant impact on both work-related injuries/recovery and non occupational conditions. In 2014, the U.S. adult obesity rate was at 27.7%, up from the 27.1% average in 2013. In fact, more than one-third of adults in the U.S. are considered obese. Obesity and related medical conditions (hypertension, diabetes, sleep apnea, acid reflux, degenerative joint disease and more) have profound impact on return to work and stay at work decisions.

An analysis conducted by the California Workers’ Compensation Institute outlines some of the possible impacts the AMA decision to classify obesity as a disease could have on the WC system. It states that “the AMA’s reclassification of obesity as a disease may prompt an increase in claims involving obesity as a co-morbidity, a compensable consequence of injury, or in some situations, a primary diagnosis, which could be costly.”

On top of that, obesity is fast becoming a source of disability discrimination lawsuits. The EEOC recently determined that obesity by itself—even without associated medical conditions--is considered a disability under the broad definitions in the expanded ADA Amendments Act of 2008, and we are just seeing a trend in litigation results that began in 2009. Likewise, obesity by itself and with associated medical conditions limits major life activities and likely fall within the definition of disability under California FEHA. Employers must follow legal standards for considering workplace accommodations before taking an adverse action against an individual where obesity and chronic conditions may be a factor. On the other hand, frontline leaders must take care not to “regard” an employee as disabled simply because he or she is overweight.

Topics:

• When obesity or related chronic conditions qualify for protection under the California FEHA and Federal ADA.
• How to evaluate whether an employee’s obesity is itself a disability; or whether it contributes to other disabling chronic illness, including respiratory, circulatory, cardiovascular, muscular, digestive or even sensory conditions.
• Trends and strategies to address weight gain after an industrial injury considered within the context of an American obesity epidemic and the recent reclassification of obesity as a disease.
• Impact of industrial injuries on weight gain, including a reduction in physical activity resulting in physical de-conditioning, depression, stress, financial loss impacting ability to afford healthy foods, onset of type 2 diabetes in at risk populations, increased blood pressure, and unintended consequences of recuperation, treatment and derivative injury (e.g. more time being sedentary; side effects of psych meds).
• When obesity or associated conditions will impact an industrial injury and your agency’s early return work programs.
• How to address the impact of non industrial chronic conditions on the resolution of an industrial claim, including circumstances where non industrial limitations will prevent an injured worker from participating in early return to work programs.
• Your obligations to engage in an “interactive process” with employees who have industrial and/or non-industrial chronic conditions before concluding that the employee cannot perform his or her job, even with reasonable accommodations.
• Danger zones in raising “safety” as a reason to remove a worker who is obese or has other chronic conditions, without conducting an objective evaluation and relying upon reasonable medical judgments.
• The significant limits on an employers’ defense of “imminent and substantial safety threat” in a disability discrimination claim by a chronically ill employee.
• Dealing with vague restrictions or leave certifications for chronically ill employees and why health care reform will affect your return to work process.
• The key legal difference between chronic conditions and episodic impairments.
• How to identify which job functions are REALLY essential and what to do when workforce adjustments make a function that was marginal now essential.
• Proactive strategies for responding to stress or resentment when other employees must perform additional duties.
• The impact of the expanded California job-protected leaves under CFRA in the context of industrial and non-industrial conditions.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

 

• Webcasts are free to current members of CSAC EIA and their employees. If you have any questions, please contact Maria Blanco at mblanco@csac-eia.org for more information.
• There is no limit on how many of your organization's employees view our webcasts. Please feel free to share the link for this session.

 

Need More Info or Help?
We hope you can join us. Feel free to contact Maria Blanco for more details.

Phone: 916-850-7300
Email: mblanco@csac-eia.org