Page 2 - White Paper- Illness and Disability

This can be one of the most difficult areas to navigate for both employees

and employers. Illness and disability present obvious and often significant

challenges to the individual employee, but can also create challenges for the

employer, and the rules are not always straightforward. In this report, we provide a

quick guide to four of the rules that are most important to understand: (i) the laws

against discrimination based on disability; (ii) the related laws against

discrimination based on perceived disability; (iii) the requirements of the federal

Family Medical Leave Act (“FMLA”); and (iv) the requirements of the

Massachusetts Earned Sick Time Law.

Disability Discrimination and Reasonable Accommodations

Disability is a “protected class” under both state and federal anti-

discrimination laws. The law requires employers to make “reasonable

accommodations” for an employee with a disability, if that employee can perform

his or her essential job functions with an accommodation. What is reasonable is

very fact-specific, and depends on the nature and needs of the business as well as

the nature and extent of the disability. Very common accommodations include the

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