Online Seminar 2019 - 3-hr Webinar : The Alphabet Soup of the FMLA, ADA, PDA, GINA, HIPAA, and Workers’ Compensation

Overview
Managing employee leaves are the most complicated aspect of a human resource professional’s job. In addition to applying an employer’s own leave policies, employers must work through the maze of various laws impacting employee rights during these leaves – laws such as the Family and Medical Leave Act, the Americans with Disabilities Amendments Act, workers’ compensation laws, the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act to name a few. Each individual law is complicated in and of itself; however, the various twists and turns that come about when these laws come together can be mind boggling. How do you untangle this maze?
Course Objective
To understand the basics of individual leave laws such as the Family and Medical Leave Act, the Americans with Disabilities Amendments Act, the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act, workers’ compensation and other laws that impact your obligations to employees needing leave. To understand when an employee is entitled to leave and what rights and protections they have while on leave. Working through the maze of how these laws interact and ensuring compliance with each as you manage your employee leaves of absence.
Session Highlights
Family and Medical Leave Act Basics
- Covered Employers and Employees
- Employee Leave Entitlements
- What is a “serious health condition”
- Your right to obtain medical certifications
- Difference between Interference and Retaliation Claims
- Employee’s Rights to Continued Health Insurance
Americans with Disabilities Amendments Act Basics
- Who are the disabled?
- What is a physical or mental impairment?
- What are major life activities?
- What do we mean by substantial limitation?
- Impact of mitigating measures
- Leave of Absence as a Reasonable Accommodation
- EstablishingUndue Hardship
- Requests for IndefiniteLeaves of Absences
- Telecommuting andReasonable Accommodation Requests
Workers’ Compensation Basics
- Meaning of“course and scope” of employment
- Employee wagereplacement rights
- Retaliationclaims under workers’ compensation laws
Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act and HealthInsurance Portability Act Basics
- Covered employers
- What do we mean by “genetic information”?
- GINA prohibitions
- Meaning of “inadvertent” disclosures under GINA
Other laws such as the Pregnancy Discrimination Act
- Legal obligations under the PDA
- What do we mean by discrimination due to “pregnancy andrelated medical conditions”
- Using the disparate treatment theory to support a PDAclaim
- Using the disparate impact theory to support a PDA claim
- Young v. UPS: Where are we now?
Untangling the Web
- Difference between Serious Health Condition andDisability
- Why you must always consider FMLA and ADA when anemployee has a workers’ compensation lost time injury
- Lifting restrictions and the ADA
- Running paid leave concurrently with FMLA legally
- When can pregnancy complications be considered adisability under the ADA?
- Avoiding GINA and HIPAA problems when getting medicalinformation you need to determine employee leave eligibility
- When can you terminate an employee for failure to returnfrom leave?
- When is COBRA triggered in the leave process?
Who will Benefit
- CFOs
- Employers and Business owners
- Human Resources Specialists and managers
- Benefits specialists
Speaker Profile
Susan Fahey Desmond has been representing management in all areas of labor and employment law since her graduation from the University Of Tennessee School Of Law since 1985. She is a shareholder in a firm's Labor and Employment Practice Group and works from the firm's Gulf Coast office. She is a graduate of the University of Mississippi (B.A., 1982) and the University Of Tennessee School Of Law (J.D., 1985). Ms. Desmond is a member of the Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Florida and Colorado Bar Associations. She is also a member of the Federal and American (member, Labor and Employment Law Section; past chair, Labor Committee; Executive Council Coordinator, Young Lawyers Section; member, Torts and Insurance Practice Section; member, Emerging Issues Committee) Bar Associations. Ms. Desmond has served as a director for both The Mississippi Bar Young Lawyers Division and the Jackson Young Lawyers Association.