Disability Discrimination

I am not sure if everyone knows, but congress amended the Americans With Disabilities Act to include intestinal disease and several other conditions. Well I went in Friday to the EEOC and filed a discrimination against a person with a disability against my employer. It was the hardest thing I have ever had to do, but the past year has been a nightmare. You do not need to notify your employer in writing to have them discriminate against you which I thought you did. I had asked for reasonable accomodations for a flexible schedule last April and it was denied and I was told to take sick leave. There are several others who have flexible schedules in my office and are not disabled. Therefore, my employer has been continuing to discriminate against me since April. The charge also claims that the continued harrasment of my supervisor over the past year has had a dramatic impact on the unavoidale symptoms of my disability. It will be interesting to see how this all plays out. I am not the only one that filed from my office. Another person filed the week before. Well don't know what this will mean but I will keep you posted.

Good for you! Good luck and keep us posted.

good luck, randy. i had to do it too, about 7 years ago. i and two others filed under age discrimination. if i'd known i was going to sail into ssdi the way i did, i would have filed under the ADA. while you are still working, you just don't think of yourself as disabled, but you know you are being discriminated against, and at least in our case, being exploited physically at an advanced age with infirmities. gird yourself, and strengthen your resolve. litigation is NOT fun. you will have ups and downs emotionally over the next 3 years, bouncing between determination and just wanting to be done with it.

we actually got through all the hoops and interference court determinations and had a federal court date set after 3 years. i settled and left the company, and immediately filed for ssdi. the other two took a small stipend and stayed (for which they both were sorry they did). one of them died 6 months after leaving the company due to a diabetic limb loss (that we all attribute to what the company did to us). the other one is still working and looking forward to retiring in the next year. he also is diabetic and not in the best of health. i was lucky, i had the VA to fall back on for healthcare till my wife retires.

something else to remember, randy, is that even if you win, they can tie you up with appeals for years. i'm not saying that to scare you, but so you don't go into it blindly. i did a lot of research, and found that most discrimination cases are settled out of court as a means for the aggreaved and often times ill person to make an exit. the company doesn't like paying lawyers either.

it's not fun. it's not easy. but, it may be worth it in the long run. good luck.

vv

Good luck Randy!!! Do keep us posted on how everything goes.

Hugs
Gail *Nanners*

Good for you...It's nice to hear people take charge and defend what is rightfully theirs!

I am not sure if everyone knows, but congress amended the Americans With Disabilities Act to include intestinal disease and several other conditions.
(That is awesome)

The EEOC is great to work with.

Good Luck with you case, and keep us updated. I am always interested to hear how the workforce is treating my fellow CDers.

Well Monday is going to be a long day. It is the day my employer will receive the charges from the EEOC. I have a lunch meeting with my attorney Monday too. He not only does labor law, but he sits on the State BAR so is well respected in the legal community. I need to be much more attentive and document everything. Thank goodness we are closed Fridays so I don't have to be there tomorrow.

Well the saga continues. I just went thru a pre-depravation hearing and was notified I am being suspended from work for a week without pay. It lasted a whole five minutes. I stated that I fully believed that nothing I said would have an affect on the outcome of the hearing and it was this exact continued persecution that brought me to file charges with the EEOC. That I just wanted to get this over with and let the EEOC process follow what path it will.