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CAREER CORNER
Does injury before starting new job affect your status? [by Michael Kinsman] Amy Mitchell interviewed well a few weeks ago and was hired on the spot for a job as a claims representative for the Automobile Club of Southern California.
Early in September, she gave notice to the
And there is the Americans With Disabilities
She says it probably would be difficult for any
Newport Beach investment firm where she
Act, which prevents discrimination against
larger employer to present the case their
worked, and was eager to move to San Diego
disabled workers.
business would be significantly affected by failing to make an accommodation of a new
to be reunited with her boyfriend. She’d been But there are loopholes in these laws that
employee to delay the start date for a couple
workers should understand.
of weeks.
knee. It required surgery, and she was told
“It can be a gray area about what laws
“Unless you can articulate just how your
she would have to keep weight off it for four
protect you when,” says Elizbeth Koumas, a
business would be affected, you probably
weeks. She asked the Auto Club if she could
labor attorney with the Barker Law Group in
don’t have much of a case,” she says. “But if
delay her start date by two weeks.
San Diego.
you are hiring someone specifically to go to
At first, she was told by her employer that it
She says a lack of understanding about
they won’t be able to make that, that might
couldn’t wait, but within days she was told
disability laws has caused an upswing in
be grounds for not hiring them.”
she would be welcome on the payroll. She
administrative complaints and civil suits over
Koumas counsels companies to tread care-
just started the job last week.
the past two years.
fully in this area because the law is a bit
“I didn’t think it was right that I could be giv-
“People don’t always know where they
en job offer in a letter and then have it taken
stand,” Koumas says.
looking for work there for two years. Then, she fell while shopping, injuring her
a national sales convention in two weeks and
vague. “I tell them they should err on the side of the employee,” she says. “When the law is
away because I was hurt,” says Mitchell. For instance, though Mitchell had not yet
not black and white, you don’t want to take
The Auto Club admits that the manager who
worked one day for new employer - which
chances.”
initially rescinded the job offer wasn’t follow-
would gain her statutory protections - accep-
ing company policy. “It’s unfortunate that it
tance of her job offer could be interpreted as
happened, but it’s really not company policy,”
an employment agreement. After all, she quit
says Carol Thorp, an Auto Club spokes-
her job and relocated with the expectation
woman.
that she would have the job that had been offered her.
Mitchell’s experience brings up questions about the job-search process and just how
And Mitchell was taking a desk job. The fact
much protection an individual has during that
she was on crutches would not stop her in
process.
any way from performing her job duties.
There are state (California Department of
“Employers have the right to ask individuals
Fair Employment and Housing) and federal
during the interview process if they can per-
(Equal Employment Opportunity Commission)
form the duties of the job without problems,”
guidelines that protect job seekers from vari-
Koumas says. “But you just can’t ask that
ous forms of job discrimination, both before
question of people who are obviously dis-
they get a job and after they are on it.
abled. You have to ask it of all job seekers.”
PAGE
© Copley News Service