What must employers do for employees who sustain short- or long-term disabilities?
How employers treat employees with disabilities will bring discrimination and equal employment opportunities concerns into play. If the disability is due to pregnancy, you may not discriminate against women with respect to the granting of leaves of absence in connection with any pregnancy or maternity-related disability. You must apply written or unwritten employment policies dealing with the commencement and duration of leaves and the availability of leave extensions to pregnancy-related conditions as you would for any other disability. For more on maternity leaves, see 45,310.
Both the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act bar discrimination against a qualified individual with a disability who can perform essential job functions with or without reasonable accommodation.
What about income benefits programs? Disability benefits available to employees may cover short-term or long-term needs and may be available through the purchase of insurance or self-insured by the employer. The benefits are designed to replace a portion or all of the income of an employee who is unable to work due to a physical or mental disability. The disability cannot be related to the employee's work, however, or it would be covered by workers' compensation.
When designing disability coverage, programs and policies should be integrated with other benefits, such as:
- paid time off;
- vacation time off;
- paid or unpaid leaves;
- family/medical leaves;
- personal days off;
- sick time;
- pregnancy disability and family care leave;
- maternity/paternity leave.
Cost management is an issue in disability coverage, whether the benefits are provided through workers' compensation or other disability programs. Employers are making greater efforts to stay in touch with employees who are away from work and to encourage them to return to a less strenuous position with the organization if they are unable to return to their former positions.
Although there is no federal law requiring you to offer disability income benefits, a few states mandate that employers offer disability income benefits and have legislated the design and cost of the coverage. Be sure to check State Laws for the law(s) that apply in your state(s).