DISABILITY ACCOMMODATION

California's Fair Employment and Housing Act  requires an employer to provide reasonable accommodations needed by a new or existing disabled employee to perform essential job functions.  Generally speaking, if a disability can be reasonably accommodated in the workplace, it needs to be, either as requested by the employee, or by some other means worked out by good faith interactive process between employer and employee.

Potential legal remedies for proven claims of employer failure to provide (or adequately attempt to provide), reasonable disability accommodation, may include award of lost wages, emotional distress damages, attorney’s fees, and punitive damages.

More information about workplace civil rights, including disability accommodation is available from the  California State Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH).  And while an administrative complaint against an employer may be filed directly with DFEH, the potential filer may benefit from first retaining  private legal representation, such as through California Employment Justice Center, to provide strategic legal counsel from the very beginning of the case. Either way, a potential victim should waste no time in securing legal assistance, because access to justice could be lost if any applicable case filing deadlines were missed.