California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) requires every employer with five or more employees to make reasonable attempts to accommodate their employee’s work restrictions resulting from either industrial or non-industrial causes. Employers who fail to engage in an interactive process with disabled employees or who fail to provide reasonable accommodations may be subject to legal costs and adverse judgments running into (potentially) millions of dollars. A Northern California employer recently paid more than $3 million in legal fees and damages for refusing to discuss job modification or reassignment with a disabled employee. FEHA complaints and legal actions are now more likely due to the recent elimination of the mandatory vocational rehabilitation benefit.

Leno and Associates provides services to assist employers in minimizing exposure under the FEHA:

• Staff training on FEHA requirements, interactive process, return-to-work process, job accommodation, and attitudes awareness [goto resource page].
• Develop policy, procedure, and documentation for the interactive and reasonable accommodation process.
• Assist employers with the interactive and reasonable accommodation process.
• Document process and accommodations provided (or the reason accommodation could not be provided).
• Develop and facilitate implementation of interactive process and return-to-work programs.
• Coordinate contacts with specialists and resources to address unique return-to-work needs.