10 costly return-to-work mistakes

While the ADA doesn’t prohibit employers from having a maximum leave policy, exceptions to the policy must be made on a case-by-case basis to reasonably accommodate people with disabilities. Also, a program that limits the availability of transitional jobs to a certain class of workers — those who are injured on the job — risks violating the ADA unless there is a legitimate business reason for doing so. Properly structured, RTW programs can decrease the ADA exposure. [Image: Shutterstock]

Insisting on a return to “full duty” increases workers’ comp costs and heightens the possibility of “disability syndrome” — the failure to return to work when it is medically possible. In 2011, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission found that Supervalu Inc., American Drug Stores and Jewel Food Stores Inc. violated the ADA with inflexible leave policies that prohibited employees on one-year paid disability leave from returning to work unless they could return without any accommodation. [Image: Shutterstock]