FMLA, ADA, and GINA Compliance: How to Overcome Overlap Challenges - ON CD

Presented by employment law experts Audra Hamilton, John Vering, and Julie Athey.

It seems like any time you think things have started to settle down with regard to the FMLA and ADA, the EEOC or the Department of Labor throws a new kink into the works. Consider these changes:

New Final ADA Regulations Interpreting the ADAAA 
The biggest recent changes in ADA and FMLA compliance stem from the EEOC’s issuance of final ADA regulations. The regs provide long-overdue definitive guidance on what exactly is required of employers under the ADAAA. The most important issues addressed include:

• The extent of analysis that is required when an employee suffers from the type of impairment that is nearly always going to be considered disabling under the ADA
• New detail regarding when an employer violates the ADA by regarding an employee as disabled
• The EEOC’s new definition of what it means to be “substantially limited” in a major life activity
• How to tell if an employee suffers from an impairment that is “transitory and minor”
• The significance of “transitory and minor” for actual disabilities versus claims that an employee was regarded as disabled
• New clarifications of what is a “major life activity”

Final GINA Regulations
Another development that sort of crept up on many HR practitioners is how the requirements of GINA affect the FMLA, ADA, and even workers’ compensation. In late 2010, the EEOC issued final GINA regulations that have shed invaluable light on those requirements.  In general, GINA prohibits employers from requesting or acquiring genetic information about employees and the family members of employees. The final regs addressed for the first time the obligation of employers to avert the inadvertent disclosure of genetic information by a health care provider who provides information about an employee’s disability, the existence of a serious health condition, or a work-related injury. 

Workers’ compensation
You can't overlook this important issue employers continue to face when it comes to the interaction of workers’ compensation requirements and federal employment laws. Here are some issues employers struggle with:

• How to handle the intersection of the FMLA and workers’ compensation for work-related injuries and absences
• The FMLA rights of employees who return from leave to a light-duty position after a work-related injury
• Concurrent leave issues when an employee takes FMLA leave for a work-related injury
• The effect of GINA on workers’ compensation laws.

Untangling the overlapping, confusing issues in regards to the ADA, FMLA, GINA, and workers' comp is necessary for you to stay in compliance with the newest regulations.

With this timely webinar, you'll learn:

• What you MUST know about the new final ADA regulations
  - What they say and require -- and what has changed 
  - Changes employers need to make in light of the new regs
  - Ramifications on FMLA compliance
  - How serious health conditions under FMLA and disabilities under the ADA overlap
• How to decipher the overlapping complexities of the FMLA, ADA, GINA, and workers’ comp
  - Which laws apply to you and when 
  - Overlap of serious health conditions, protected disabilities under the ADA, and protected genetic information
  - How to legally obtain medical certifications and other documentation under all four laws
  - The overlap of the ADA’s and GINA’s nondiscrimination requirements
  - Confidentiality requirements for medical information protected by FMLA, ADA, and GINA
• Implementing strategies to help keep overlapping requirements of the different laws from causing headaches
• Managing leave under FMLA, ADA, and workers’ comp

Learn what you MUST do to keep your organization compliance with the latest ADA, FMLA, and GINA rules and regulations. 

 Your Webinar Leaders

Audra K. Hamilton represents employers in all stages of litigation and administrative matters. She also provides practical advice for real-world problems. Her experience includes  representation of employers before federal and state trial courts, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, state employment security commissions, and arbitrations. She speaks 
frequently on employment issues, and she is an adjunct professor of employment law at Oklahoma State University. She has been a co-editor and contributing author for the Oklahoma 
Employment Law Letter, has authored several articles for seminars and programs for employers, and she recently completed the book ADA Compliance: Practical Solutions for HR (fully up-to-date with the recently passed ADA Amendments Act). Hamilton lives and works in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and is licensed to practice law in all state and federal courts in Oklahoma and Arkansas.

John A. Vering is chairman of Armstrong Teasdale's Employment and Labor Practice Group in the Kansas City office. He regularly appears before federal and state courts and administrative agencies in Missouri and Kansas and is admitted to practice in state and federal courts in Missouri and Kansas and in the United States Courts of Appeals for the Fourth, Eighth, and Tenth Circuits. He is also a mediator and an arbitrator. Vering has been recognized in Chambers USA: America's Leading Lawyers for Business as a "leading employment lawyer." 

Julie K. Athey has written numerous publications for human resources professionals, including the manuals FMLA Compliance, Practical Solutions for HR, HR Q&A: Family and Medical Leave Act, and the monthly newsletter FMLA Compliance Bulletin. She graduated with honors from the University of Tulsa College of Law, where she was an editor of the Energy Law Journal. She also obtained her undergraduate degree in English, cum laude, from the University of Tulsa.