What are my rights as just a worker?
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What are my rights as just a worker?
For the last 3 months I have been dealing with a lot of medical stuff to which my GM barely has followed what my doctors have even said. My assistant manager before they left, told me that my GM seems to have some sort of vendetta against me and my boyfriend at the store. I keep him updated on everything going on but he still schedules me on days I have doctors appointments and then tells me ‘I blind sided him’ with them. I even put my availability changed because of all this and my request got denied. I’ve contact the person over him but I feel like its just gonna keep happening. I even had to go to the ER not too long ago Legit like last week not even a week and I had nothing but problems with him the whole time. He wouldn’t even respond back to me cause I was suppose to stay overnight but he never told me if me shift was even covered. I feel like I am beyond overwhelmed and stressed out because of all of this he even told me I might need to go on disability and even still the ADA requires that for people whom have a disability the workplace has to provide a flexible schedule. My specialist has even told me for the sake of my health I need to find another job.
Asked on November 20, 2018 under Employment Labor Law, Rhode Island
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 6 years ago | Contributor
You are incorrect about something: the ADA does not require that a workplace always provide a flexible schedule; rather, the ADA requires only a "reasonable accommodation" to an employee disability. A "reasonable accommodation" is a change which is not too disruptive or expensive to the employer. Depending on the size of your employer (or department, if it is organized into different departments), what you do, whether your job can be done on a flexible schedule or has to be done at set time, etc. the employer may or may not have to provide you a flexible schedule--it has to do so only if it is reasonable for it to do so. For example, a receptionist or call center staffer must be one during regular business hours, while a graphic artist may be able to do her work at other times; a waitress in a restaurant has to be available during the peak shifts when customers comes in, while the restaurant bookkeeper would not have to be; etc.
And in this regard, it is not required to "bump" other employees from their own schedules if doing so would be unduly disruptive. Without more information about what you and your employer does, the size of the employer and your department, etc. we cannot say whether you need to be given a flexible schedule--but we can say that you are incorrect to assume that you must be given one.
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