THE TICKET TO HIRE E-NEWSLETTER

Vol. 2, No. 7     July 2003

A monthly update from the TICKET TO HIRE PROGRAM, a service sponsored by the Social Security Administration's Office of Employment Support Programs, with additional support provided by the Department of Labor's Office of Disability Employment Policy.

July 26 is the 13th anniversary of the signing into law of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990

The Good News in Employer Survey Deserves Greater Attention

In the new survey and report Restricted Access: A Survey of Employers About People with Disabilities and Lowering Barriers to Work, published by the John J. Heldrick Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers, authors K.A. Dixon, Doug Kruse, and Carl E. Van Horn observe that while their study finds "misconceptions and confusion about the costs and barriers of hiring people with disabilities," there are a number of positive indicators strongly suggesting that "[E]mployers will benefit by making accommodations needed" to attract and maintain the most capable workforce in today's changing economy.

Accommodation Costs

For instance, Restricted Access reports 40% of employers maintain that it can be difficult or costly to provide accommodations to workers with disabilities. Yet as many previous studies have shown, the new survey finds that employers who make accommodations are often pleasantly surprised by their costs:

"Significantly, only 14% of employers say that implementing these accommodations were more costly than anticipated, while 50% say the changes were less costly to implement, or about what they expected. The majority (61%) of employers indicate that the average cost of accommodation was only $500 or less, with 29% saying it was less than $100." (Emphasis by the authors.)

However, another survey finding underscores an even more significant although little-known fact:

"The vast majority (73%) of employers report their disabled workers did not require accommodations."

Our opinion: Disability providers and advocates should make greater efforts to ensure employers receive this kind of information.

The Connection between Training Programs and Hiring People with Disabilities

"The lack of training programs [on disability awareness] at a majority of America's employers represents a major barrier to people with disabilities enjoying free access to the labor market, while the positive record of training at employers who do hire people with disabilities shows that these decisions are not regretted by the employer."

"When asked what is the greatest barrier employers themselves face in hiring people with disabilities, 32% say that the nature of their company's work is such that it cannot be effectively performed by workers with disabilities. Only 10% say that employer discomfort or unfamiliarity regarding hiring people with disabilities is the greatest barrier, while another 10% cite fear about the cost of accommodating disability. The survey's discovery that more than half of employers do not provide training in this area suggests that more of companies' work could be performed by people with disabilities if the appropriate training was provided."

Perception of Physical Accessibility and ADA Requirements

"The majority (85%) of employers agree that their company is physically accessible to employees with disabilities, with 59% strongly agreeing."

"The majority (86%) of employers also agree that their company fully complies with the requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act [ADA]."

Although the authors draw no conclusion, it would appear that many employers equate a workplace's physical accessibility with full compliance with the ADA. Our opinion: This is another area in which disability providers and advocates can help educate employers.

Recruiting Efforts

"About half (49%) of the employers say that they have made recruiting and interviewing locations accessible."

"Eleven percent of employers say that they have developed recruiting methods and advertise job positions in ways that specifically target people with disabilities."

"Twelve percent of employers have changed the format of job applications to make them more accessible, or have changed the tests or evaluations used in hiring or promotion."

"Seven percent say that they have changed the company's website to make it more accessible to people with disabilities."

Tax Incentives

"As a group, 60% of all employers agree that the Federal government should offer tax incentives to employers for hiring people with disabilities, while 61% agree that the Federal government should provide funds for tax incentives to employers to pay for accommodations for workers with disabilities."

"It is interesting to note that the survey shows that support for either type of tax incentive does not really differ according to whether or not the firm employs disabled workers, and support of tax incentives for accommodations does not differ according to whether or not the firm has made accommodations. So the firms that would appear to benefit most from these policies are not the strongest pushers of these changes. There appears to be broad, general support for these ideas."

The survey did not ask employers whether they are aware of relevant existing tax credits and deductions, such as the Work Opportunity Tax Credit, Disabled Access Credit, or Section 190 of the IRS Tax Code. Our opinion: This is another opportunity for education.

Employers Support ADA's Goals

"The survey strongly suggests that employers would support expansions of the Federal partnership and progress represented by the Americans with Disabilities Act, to allow them to more aggressively recruit, hire, train, and support workers with disabilities. Nearly three-fourths of employers believe that employers, government, and workers should share equal burdens for equality in the workplace."

Authors' Concluding Opinion

"Existing research amply demonstrates that people with disabilities are underrepresented in the labor market, and that many who are not working strongly wish to be employed and make a contribution.

"However long the current economic slowdown continues to restrain employment, it does not alter the new paradigm of today's labor market, where jobs and job requirements change frequently as employers respond to rapidly-shifting global market conditions. Job tenures will continue to shorten, and employer worker needs become more complex. The importance of finding workers on a rapid basis with the appropriate skills and motivation to fit appropriate jobs is an increasingly dominant challenge for corporate managers and human resource leaders.

"With these challenges, opportunities arise for categories of workers who have faced longstanding barriers to employment, and are willing to work to overcome the confusion and lack of training that can maintain these barriers in place. Employers will benefit by making the accommodations needed to open their doors wider."

Click here to look at the complete version of Restricted Access: A Survey of Employers About People with Disabilities and Lowering Barriers to Work

Tip of the Month

Q: Does an employer have to hold open an employee's job as a reasonable accommodation?

Answer: Yes. An employee with a disability who is granted leave as a reasonable accommodation is entitled to return to his/her same position unless the employer demonstrates that holding open the position would impose an undue hardship. If an employer cannot hold a position open during the entire leave period without incurring undue hardship, the employer must consider whether it has a vacant, equivalent position for which the employee is qualified and to which the employee can be reassigned to continue his/her leave for a specific period of time and then, at the conclusion of the leave, can be returned to this new position.

Example: An employee needs eight months of leave for treatment and recuperation related to a disability. The employer grants the request, but after four months the employer determines that it can no longer hold open the position for the remaining four months without incurring undue hardship. The employer must consider whether it has a vacant, equivalent position to which the employee can be reassigned for the remaining four months of leave, at the end of which time the employee would return to work in that new position. If an equivalent position is not available, the employer must look for a vacant position at a lower level. Continued leave is not required as a reasonable accommodation if a vacant position at a lower level is also unavailable.

Q: Can an employer penalize an employee for work missed during leave taken as a reasonable accommodation?

Answer: No. To do so would be retaliation for the employee's use of a reasonable accommodation to which s/he is entitled under the law. Moreover, such punishment would make the leave an ineffective accommodation, thus making an employer liable for failing to provide a reasonable accommodation.

Example A: A salesperson took five months of leave as a reasonable accommodation. The company compares the sales records of all salespeople over a one-year period, and any employee whose sales fall more than 25% below the median sales performance of all employees is automatically terminated. The employer terminates the salesperson because she had fallen below the required performance standard. The company did not consider that the reason for her lower sales performance was her five-month leave of absence; nor did it assess her productivity during the period she did work (i.e., prorate her productivity). Penalizing the salesperson in this manner constitutes retaliation and a denial of reasonable accommodation.

Example B: Company X is having a reduction-in-force. The company decides that any employee who has missed more than four weeks in the past year will be terminated. An employee took five weeks of leave for treatment of his disability. The company cannot count those five weeks in determining whether to terminate this employee. Source: U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Revised Enforcement Guidance: Reasonable Accommodation and Undue Hardship Under the Americans With Disabilities Act , Updated October 2002.

We'll talk to you again next month. In the meantime, if you have any questions, please contact us at: 866-TTW HIRE (866-889-4473) (Voice/TTY) or tickettohire@acs-inc.com.