M.L.
Bean
NIOSH Education and Information Division
In order
to address the major areas of discrimination faced on a day-to-day
basis by people with disabilities, in 1990, the United States
Congress enacted Public Law 101-336, otherwise known as the
Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA). Among the goals of
Congress was to assure equality of opportunity in employment
to individuals with disabilities.
Effective
July 26,1994, any person engaged in an industry affecting
commerce who has fifteen (15) or more employees for each working
day in each of twenty (20) or more calendar weeks in the current
or preceding calendar year is defined as an employer who is
subject to the provisions of Title I - Employment of the ADA.
Under Title I, no covered employer, including agricultural
employers, shall discriminate against a qualified job applicant
or current employee with a disability because of the disability.
The ADA does not, however, require an employer to hire or
continue to employ an individual whose presence in the workplace
constitutes a direct threat to that individual or to others.
This
presentation will discuss basic concepts of the ADA relevant
to agricultural employers, including the definition of the
terms disability, undue hardship, and direct threat; reasonable
accommodations in an agricultural workplace; and the remedies
available under the ADA to individuals who have suffered employment
discrimination because of their disability.
Disclaimer
and Reproduction Information: Information in NASD does not represent
NIOSH policy. Information included in NASD appears by permission
of the author and/or copyright holder. More
NASD Review: 04/2002
This
research abstract was extracted from a portion of the proceedings
of "Agricultural Safety and Health: Detection, Prevention and
Intervention," a conference presented by the Ohio State University
and the Ohio Department of Health, sponsored by the Centers
for Disease Control/National Institute for Occupational Safety
and Health.
M.L.
Bean, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH.
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