Writing an employee up for attendance even though it's due to a medical condition.

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ibaker

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My jurisdiction is: Missouri

Currently my company offers personal leave of absence after a employee completes 6 months of employment and Family & Medical leave of absence after the 12 months of employment. I have an employee that has been missing a lot of work due to attendance issues such as tardiness or absence. She was issued a 1st warning on 11/3 for attendance. At this time we were unaware of the medical issue. On 11/8 she called in to work. At this time she brought it to our attention that she had been diagnosed with cancer and the medication was making her sick and making it hard for her to get up in the morning. I brought her and her supervisor into my office and gave her the options. She was not eligible for FMLA because she had not been employed for 12 months,but she was eligible for personal leave of absence. She said that she would have to think about it. I must be consistent with all employees. If she declines the personal leave of absence is it within our rights as a company to move forward with write ups without getting into legal trouble?
 
Maybe.

You might also want to consider whether or not she qualifies under the ADA and, if so, whether or not a flexible schedule would be a reasonable accomodation. Only you can answer that as it is very job and situation specific.

If the ADA does not apply or if there is no reasonable accomodation that will allow her to be flexible in her hours worked and still accomplish the essential functions of her position, then you can move forward as you suggest.

Remember that on 1/1/09, the ADA definitions expand to be more favorable to the employee.
 
Can you give me a good website to research that would explain the new ADA definitions? I would like to look into this further.
 
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