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Just when you think you have it all under control, something new comes along. Dealing with workers' compensation was downright routine. Then came the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 to complicate things. By the time you figured out if, when, and how your company had to comply with the ADA, the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 hit. The net result: massive confusion.
A number of companies are running educational seminars to help employers sort out the issues. Speakers at the Council on Education in Management's "Managing Disability, Leave and Absence Issues Under Workers' Compensation, FMLA, ADA and Related Laws" offered advice for complying with everything at once. Rerettablv they didn't say it would be easy. Intent In a Nutshell
Workers' compensation is just a way for employees injured on the job to collect money to compensate them for their inability to earn wages, without resorting to a lawsuit. Attorney Michael Banks of Philadelphia's Morgan, Lewis & Bockius summarizes the ADA and FMLA this way:
The ADA is intended to promote work opportunities for people with disabilities, and its focus is on the employer; the FMLA is intended to give employees unpaid time off with benefits and is similar to insurance.
Workers' comp requires leave for healing. Getting the worker back on the job often calls for lightduty "accommodation" for a period. The ADA calls for "reasonable accommodations" for people with disabilities, which can include light-duty and flexible scheduling in some circumstances. The FMLA does not require light-duty jobs but does require considering "intermittent leave," which is letting the employee take unpaid leave in short periods to accommodate eligible scheduling or health problems.
The key to complying with comp, ADA, and FMLA is consistency, stressed Michael J. Ossip, also of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius. Consistency requires coordination of all cases...