Education Report Samples

Article Review

The article discusses the problem of “perceived disability” as a reason for denying employment, which under Americans with Disabilities Act (APA) and the Human Rights Code is prohibited as discriminatory practice. I have chosen the article, because the case is controversial, and just legal regulation of this issue is challenging as well. There is no doubt, that individuals with disabilities should be granted equal rights with average workers, including special accommodation if necessary. But the issue is not the same with the cases when an individual is denied employment as a consequence of “perceived disability”. It was an insight for me that APA also considers this as discrimination (JD Supra Business Advisor). Employer may not deny employment due to any disability (real or perceived) of an employee to perform his or her duties. So if a person is absolutely able he or she is still subject to the Code or APA.

The two main key points of this article may be that:

An employer must not use the word “disability” explaining the reason of denial.
In order to claim for perceived disability an employee has to make it clear to the employer that might have any disability (it must be evident).
The first key point relates to the case of perceived weight disability, when an employer explained his obese employee that his decision to deny him a job assignment was due to “disability” of the latter. In fact, the customers were not satisfied with the employer, but in this exact case words matter. And this single word “disability” cost the employer $2000.
The other key point is related with perceived drug addiction, when an applicant had failed a drug test and was denied the job only because he was a “casual smoker” (by his own words). This is insufficient ground for the reason to be considered as “disability” (even perceived). But if the applicant had told that he is severely addicted, it could have created a ground for a “perceived disability” claim.
This article describes the disability issue from the different angle, than it was shown in the chapter. Here any particular case depends on words said by each party. To my mind, “perceived disability” should not be prohibited by APA, because it creates loopholes in law and makes such controversial cases possible. Employers should care more about really disabled people rather than those, whose feelings and self-respect was hurt.

References

Law of Work: Discrimination at Work Based on “Perceived” Disability, (8 April 2015). Retrieved from: http://lawofwork.ca/?p=3887
JD Supra Business Advisor: Recent $50,000 Settlement Serves as Reminder that Employers Do Not Always Know What’s Best for their Employees, (9 April 2015). Retrieved from: http://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/recent-50000-settlement-serves-as-remi-83367/