This being the case, the Court ruled that the employer had to make reasonable accommodations in the training of the deaf employees. When the training involves both visual and audio information, it is not enough to simply state that the deaf workers can just watch the video as this does not allow them to receive the entire benefit of the training. Further, the use of an interpreter or closed caption subtitles is not an unreasonable request. Because of this, the employees were found to have a valid claim of discrimination under the Americans with Disabilities Act. This decision was surprising because adds specific requirements to the accommodations an employer has to provide that did not exists previously, thus showing that even if the manager knew the law, they would have still found themselves facing a legal action for discrimination.
One area that I disagreed with was a case involving a sixty-five-year-old applicant for driving an ambulance. In the case, the applicant is denied the job on account of his age. The employer reasons that most individual of that age have certain health related characteristics that legitimately exclude them from performing the job as required. The applicant argues he was never given an individual evaluation to determine whether his...
I disagreed with this decision in that it was based on a blatant generalization that all individuals of age 65 cannot perform the job. Granted, many may not be able to but, as the applicant argued, the employer should have to prove this on a case-by-case basis.
This site is a treasure chest of information for the human resources manager. With this up-to-date and easy to use site, there is no excuse for not having at least a basic understanding of employment law. What I learned from this exercise is that the area of employment law is both varied and vast, thus having the necessary resources at your constant disposal is an essential tool of the human resources manager.
Bibliography
Bennett-Alexander, Dawn D., and Laura P. Hartman. (2005): Employment Law for Business. New York: The McGraw-Hill Companies.
Moran, John Jude. (2004): Employment Law: New Challenges in the Business Environment. New York: Prentice Hall.
