Compliance Stuff

On August 19, 2025, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan held that an employee was not protected under the Americans with Disabilities Act since he had not been medically cleared to return to work and could not perform his essential job functions. The decision in  Haack v. Lapeer County Road Commission  highlights the stance of requests for indefinite leave in the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. Quick Hits On August 19, 2025, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan held that an employee on medical leave was not protected under the ADA since he had not been medically cleared to return to work and could not perform his essential job functions. The employer had already granted over a year of leave, so the employee’s request for more open-ended leave was considered unreasonable. The court reasoned that neutral and nondisability-based communications from the employer did not support a hostile work environment claim . Background on the C...

Takeaways In the wrongful discharge case of  Méndez Ruiz v. Techno Plastics Industries, Inc.,  the Court found an employee’s exhaustion of the 12-month Workers’ Compensation leave is not automatic grounds for a just cause termination. Puerto Rico does not recognize employment-at-will. Just cause analysis is necessary for terminations in Puerto Rico. Related link Méndez Ruiz v. Techno Plastics Industries, Inc. Article The Puerto Rico Supreme Court recently issued a decision reaffirming the importance of just cause for employment terminations in Puerto Rico.  Méndez Ruiz v. Techno Plastics Industries, Inc. ,  No. 2025 TSPR 68 (June 26, 2025). Puerto Rico does not recognize employment-at-will. The Court reiterated that companies must establish the reasons for termination are not arbitrary, capricious, or unrelated to legitimate business reasons . Under Law No. 80 of May 30, 1976, the Puerto Rico Unjust Dismissal statute, employers must have “just cause” for dismissal of...

It kinda makes sense when you think about it. "YEAH, I CAN SEE THAT." Interesting decision  this week from a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the  Second Circuit . A high school math teacher (we’ll call her “Ms.  Plantagenet ”) had post-traumatic stress disorder. Years earlier, her doctor wrote a note saying she needed two 15-minute breaks per day (one in the morning, and one in the afternoon) during periods when she wasn’t responsible for teaching or dealing with the kids. The breaks, according to her doctor, would help her keep under control what sounds like very severe stress. (According to the court’s decision, Ms. Plantagenet had to be admitted for psychiatric care three times, had a stress-induced stutter, and had nightmares so bad that they caused her to throw up.) But apparently she was a good teacher and was able to make it through the work day even when she didn’t get the 15-minute breaks. When she first brought in the doctor’s note, the school...

  The Justice Department   sued   the State of South Carolina today for unnecessarily segregating adults with mental illness in adult care homes, in violation of Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Supreme Court’s decision in   Olmstead v. L.C.  The department previously notified South Carolina of its findings of civil rights violations in a   July 2023 letter , which identified steps that the state should take to remedy the violations. “People with disabilities in South Carolina can and must be able to receive services in their own homes, rather than being isolated in institutions,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “The Civil Rights Division will continue to ensure that people with disabilities can receive the services necessary to enable and empower them to leave institutions, and participate fully in community life.” “The ADA requires publi...

  Based on a real lawsuit. Names have been changed to protect the innocent. Facts may not be 100 percent accurate. Please provide your two cents in the comments! PART ONE: Imagine you're the boss. You run a fast-food franchise, Flippin' Burgers. You hire Gwendolyn to be a first-shift manager at one of your restaurants.  You have a policy that says employees, including management, will receive progressive discipline for being absent without proper notification. In non-emergency situations, they are required to call in before the start of their shifts. Gwendolyn is out one day and fails to call in as required by the policy. Per the policy, you counsel her about the need to provide timely notice of her absences. WHEN GWENDOLYN NO-SHOWED, YOU HAD TO GET BY WITH A SKELETON CREW. A little while later, she does it again. This time you amp it up to a written warning and say that failure to comply in the future could result in "disciplinary action, up to and including discharge....

More than 34 years after the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was enacted, it’s still not entirely clear who can sue under the law. In a case before the U.S. Supreme Court in its upcoming term, justices will decide if former employees can sue over post-employment benefits. The case involves a city that reduced its disability retirement health benefits, allegedly for budgetary reasons. “This decision will have little to no effect on employers who do not offer post-employment benefits,” said Ryan Bates, an attorney with Hunton Andrews Kurth in Washington, D.C., and Vienna, Va. However, if the upcoming ruling is in the plaintiff’s favor, it may deter employers from offering such benefits based on the fear that they may later be sued for routine adjustments, he added. “Although most HR professionals already take care to ensure that policies do not have a discriminatory impact on any protected class, post-employment benefits are often the first to be amended when there are budget cha...

  Real World Impact:   This is the first in a series of Alerts that will provide guidance to employers on navigating the complicated mix of concerns that can arise when dealing with employee mental health issues. Introduction:  Over the past 10 to 15 years, U.S. employers have increasingly been encountering employee mental health issues that impact an employee’s ability to perform his/her job duties as expected and require some variety of reasonable accommodation . Navigating such mental health issues can be difficult on several levels – i.e., personal, professional, and operational. Complicating this landscape is the inherent relationship between mental health, addiction, suicide, and workplace violence, all of which have been trending in the wrong direction for some time. The Big Picture There are some obvious factors that have precipitated this mental health issue trend, including the ubiquitous use of cell phones, social media use, and the fallout from COVID. It appe...