What other protections do employees with disabilities or medical conditions have?

The California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) prohibits employment discrimination and harassment on the basis of a disability and medical condition, requires employers to provide reasonable accommodate to its employees with a disability, and requires employers to take reasonable steps to prevent discrimination and harassment.

Similar to many California laws, the FEHA provides broader protections than those provided by the federal law, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which it was modeled in part on.

What are some key differences between FEHA and the ADA?

Covered Employers

The ADA applies to all employers with 15 or more employees, whereas the FEHA applies to employers with only 5 or more employees.

Covered Employees

When referring to a "disability", the ADA requires that a person's physical or mental impairment "substantially limit" a major life activity, whereas the FEHA requires that it only "limit" a major life activity. This is intended to capture a broader number of protected disabilities.

Pursuant to the FEHA, to be protected, the employee must have the requisite job requirements for their position and be able to perform the essential functions of their position with or without reasonable accommodation.

What protections do employees have?

No Retaliation

Your employer cannot retaliate against you for trying to exercise your rights., including requesting an accommodation, complaining about violations of your rights, filing complaints, or testifying or assisting in any proceeding to vindicate these rights.

No Harassment

Your employer and any person, including your supervisor or human resources employee, is prohibited from harassing you on the basis of your disability or medical condition.

Your employer may be responsible for nonemployees who harass you if it knows or should have known of the harassment and failed to take immediate and appropriate action.

Preventing Discrimination and Harassment

Your employer must take all reasonable steps to prevent discrimination or harassment from occurring.

No Discrimination

Your employer cannot discriminate against you based on your disability or medical condition.

What kinds of employment actions may be a result of illegal discrimination?

• Termination

• Demotion

• Suspension

• Denial or reduction of bonuses, raises, salary

• Unequal pay compared to your non-disabled peers

• Reassigning your duties

• Taking away supervisory responsibilities

• Poor performance reviews

• Denial of training

• Being assigned to low visibility tasks

• Heightened scrutiny of your work

• Undermining or sabotaging your work

• Assigning you more work than your peers

• Relocating you to a less desirable job site

• Repeated harassment

• Being left out of team meetings/events/lunches

• Scheduling your hours abusively

• Threatening you or a family member with an immigration action such as deportation

• Belittling you in the media

• Delaying your return to work after leave

• Failing to prevent harassment or discrimination

• Taking away previously held privileges

• Conduct likely to impair you job performance or ability to promote

• Pattern of conduct that adversely affects the terms, conditions or privileges of your employment

What disabilities and medical conditions?

What disabilities are covered?

LEARN MORE FROM “WHAT DOES DISABILITY ACCOMMODATION MEAN?”

California provides a non-exhaustive list of conditions that are considered disabilities. If your condition is not listed, use this test:

1. Do you have any type of anatomical loss, cosmetic disfigurement, physiological disease, disorder or condition?

2. Does it affect one or more of these body systems? There are a lot! (neurological, immunological, musculoskeletal, special sense organs, respiratory including speech organs, cardiovascular, reproductive, digestive, genitourinary, hemic and lymphatic, circulatory, skin, and endocrine systems)

3. Does the condition make achieving a major life activity difficult?

If yes to all three, then you’re covered!

What medical conditions are covered?

"Medical condition" includes any of the below definitions:

• Cancer

  • Any health impairment related to or associated with a cancer diagnosis or a record or history of cancer. 

• Genetic Characteristics

  • Gene/chromosome or inherited characteristic that is known to cause or increases the risk of a disease/disorder in you or your offspring.

    • For example, the genes known to cause breast cancer, downs syndrome, thalassemia anemia, cystic fibrosis, lung disorder, Tay-Sachs nerve disorder, or inherited characteristics such as obesity causing diabetes, or high cholesterol causing coronary heart disease or peripheral vascular disease.

DISCLAIMER: this information is general in nature and does not constitute legal advice or seek to be the complete and comprehensive statement of the law, nor is it intended to address your specific requirements or provide advice on which reliance should be placed.