CONTROVERSIAL ISSUE OF DIVERSITY IN FIELD PHARMACY

Controversial Issue Of Diversity In Field Pharmacy



Controversial Issue Of Diversity In Field Pharmacy

Disability Discrimination - Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)

People with disabilities make valuable contributions at work -- if they are given the opportunity to do so. In the past decade, the federal government and many state governments have passed laws that give people with disabilities this opportunity. The main federal law is called the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and it and similar state laws have changed the face of the American workforce by prohibiting discrimination against people with disabilities and by requiring employers to accommodate the disabilities of employees -- and applicants -- when possible.

Who Is Covered

The ADA and most state laws protect "qualified workers with disabilities." Thus, someone must be a qualified worker and they must have a legally recognized disability to be protected by the ADA. Let's look more closely at these issues.

A qualified worker is a worker who can perform most basic and necessary job duties, with or without some form of accommodation from you (www.thewellproject.org).

A worker is legally disabled if he falls into one of these three categories:

• The worker has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits a major life activity (such as the ability to walk, talk, see, hear, breathe, reason, work or take care of oneself). Courts tend not to categorically characterize certain conditions as disabilities. Instead, they consider the effect of the particular condition on the particular employee.

• The worker has a record or history of impairment. In other words, you may not make employment decisions based on your employee's past disability.

• He is regarded by the employer -- even incorrectly -- as having a disability. In other words, you can't treat workers less favorably because you believe them to be disabled, even if you are wrong.

Reasonable Accommodation

Accommodating a worker means providing assistance or making changes in the job or workplace that will enable the worker to do her job (Trivedi, Ayanian, 2006). For example, an employer might lower the height of a desktop to accommodate a worker in a wheelchair, provide TDD telephone equipment for a worker whose hearing is impaired or provide a quiet, distraction-free workspace for a worker with Attention Deficit Disorder.

It is your employee's responsibility to inform you of her disability and request a reasonable accommodation -- you are not legally required to guess at what might help the employee do her job. However, once an employee tells you she is disabled, you must engage in what the law calls a "flexible interactive process" -- essentially, a brainstorming dialogue with your worker to figure out what kinds of accommodations might be effective and practical (www.thewellproject.org). Whether an accommodation qualifies as undue hardship depends on a number of factors, including:

• the cost of the accommodation

• the size and financial resources of your business

• the structure of your business, and

• the effect the accommodation would have on your business.

Alcohol and Drugs

Alcohol and drug use pose special problems under the ...