Jaclyn Jaeger of Compliance Week quoted Stoel Rives Labor & Employment attorney Amy Joseph Pedersen in a report about recently-issued Equal Employment Opportunity Commission regulations clarifying, among other things, when an employee qualifies as "disabled." The regulations provide additional guidance on the Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act ("ADAAA") by identifying certain impairments that "in virtually all cases" are substantially limiting. In 2009, Congress passed the ADAAA in response to earlier U.S. Supreme Court decisions that it said interpreted the definition of "disability" too narrowly.
Pedersen noted that the new regulations translate into a serious new litigation risk for employers. "By removing practically any burden on the employee to show that he or she is disabled, Congress and EEOC have clearly shifted the burden to employers," Pedersen wrote in a blog post about the new regulations.
Read Pedersen's full blog post at the Stoel Rives World of Employment blog.
"Expanded "Disabled" Definition Could Lead to More Claims" was published by Compliance Week, April 5, 2011.