Enforcing Attendance Rules But Offering Reasonable Accommodation

How does a company comply with its wide-ranging legal obligations when an employee is perpetually absent—ill or injured and allegedly unable to work? When must it hold the job open and offer the employee an opportunity for reinstatement? How can the company offer the employee “reasonable accommodation” without changing the job’s essential functions, and when must it offer an alternative light-duty job? When can the company enforce its attendance policy and actually terminate the employee for missing work? Get answers from an employment lawyer with a 25-plus-year history of advising companies and an accomplished HR professional with abundant on-the-ground experience. These presenters help you realistically evaluate your company's options and exposures when trying to ensure employee productivity.

Learning Objectives:

• Business efficiency: how to regain control when employees unfairly try to take advantage of the broad protections afforded to them under federal law, allowing them to miss work for extended periods yet keep their jobs.
• Risk management: how to effectively manage absenteeism situations without incurring legal liability.
• Employee relations: how to keep morale high even when reliable employees are burdened by an extra workload because other employeesare excessively absent.