Transcript
[The Congressional Accountability Act: The Americans with Disabilities Act & the Family and Medical Leave Act]
Christopher: The CAA applies the protections of the Americans with Disabilities Act for both the public and legislative branch employees.
Rosario: Employing offices must make their services, programs, and activities, as well as the facilities where these services, programs, and activities are provided, accessible to individuals with disabilities.
Emmett: The CAA also applies the ADA’s public access provisions to legislative branch employees when they are accessing services, programs, activities, and facilities of a covered entity other than their own employer.
Christopher: So for instance, under the CAA, a congressional committee would be required to provide American Sign Language interpretation for a deaf staffer assisting their member of Congress.
Rosario: The ADA also forbids employment discrimination by failing to accommodate an employee’s disability.
Kerry: I have rheumatoid arthritis, which is an autoimmune disorder. It affects multiple joints in my body. When I have a flare up, the pain makes it hard to do my work. It becomes painful to sit and almost impossible to type. My supervisor said she thought I was taking too many breaks. When I explained about my autoimmune disease, she shrugged and said that, “Everybody has to deal with having rough days.”
Then I told her I wanted to talk about reasonable accommodations. She laughed and said that I’m way too young to really have arthritis. She said if I couldn’t handle the job, then I should find a new one. She said I should just “figure it out.”
Christopher: This is a violation of the ADA. Uh, the Americans with Disabilities Act requires employers to provide a reasonable accommodation to allow an employee to perform their job.
Rosario: If her underlying medical condition qualifies as a disability under the ADA, Kerry’s employing office must engage in an interactive process, exploring ways to provide reasonable accommodation that would enable Kerry to perform the essential functions of her job.
Emmett: The interactive process is essentially a legally required discussion between an employing office and employee. Think of it as a two-way conversation with the goal of working together to come up with a reasonable accommodation.
Christopher: Uh, so in Kerry’s case, reasonable accommodations for her employing office to consider, uh, may include additional break time, a flexible work schedule, a standing desk, or ergonomic chair, or, um, even assistive technologies.
The CAA also prohibits employers from taking an adverse action, including harassing, firing, or refusing to hire someone because of their disability or perceived disability.
Rosario: The Congressional Accountability Act also ensures that eligible legislative branch employees may take leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act for certain qualifying reasons, such as an extended illness.
Rosemary: I’m a proud breast cancer survivor, but I was stunned when I had to fight my supervisor more than the disease. I had been in remission for years when my doctor picked up something on a scan. My cancer was back. I had already used up my annual leave for the year, so I told my office I wanted to take leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act, but they told me I would be out too long, and they really didn’t want to have to go through the headache of training someone else to fill in for me during my absence.
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Rosario: The FMLA is very clear. You can take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave during a 12-month period if you have a serious health condition that makes you unable to perform any one or more of the essential functions of your position.
Emmett: Generally, the FMLA only requires that leave be job-protected. It is not required to be paid. However, the law permits an employee to elect or the employing office to require the employee to use accrued, paid, sick, or vacation leave for some or all of the FMLA leave period.
Christopher: The FMLA also covers employees who need to care for a family member with a serious health condition.
Julius: My dad was having heart issues and my mom was developing dementia. They needed me to come home for a while and help them. My boss looked at me like I was nuts and said, “Can’t you hire someone to do that?” I mean, the doctors made it clear my mom needed round the clock supervision and my dad couldn’t by himself. I just needed to help out until we could get them moved into a retirement community with memory care. They told me that if I did this that I’d likely be demoted once I got back.
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Rosario: Although employees who take FMLA leave may not always get the exact same job back, they still must receive the same type of appointment, work schedule, status, tenure, and benefits that they had prior to taking FMLA leave.
Emmett: FMLA protections also extend to cover shorter, intermittent leave requests, and provides provisions for military families for certain qualifying exigencies, or to care for covered service members.
Krystal: My son has a serious health condition that requires weekly medical treatments. My husband and I used to trade off taking him. It took a lot of planning, but we were making it work. Then my husband’s unit was deployed and it was just me. I used up all my paid leave trying to keep up with my son’s treatments. I talked to my supervisor about it and asked if I could take off a two hour block each week, unpaid, to take my son to his treatments.
Monique: In this case, even though Krystal had no more paid leave left, she was still eligible for unpaid leave under the FMLA.
William: FMLA authorizes this intermittent leave, but requires notice and medical certification of leave, and requires employees, where possible, to schedule planned treatments in a manner that does not unduly disrupt the employer’s operations.
Monique: Unexpected serious health problems can affect employees, their spouses, children, and even their parents.
Karen: Thanks to the CAA, legislative branch employees don’t have to choose between keeping their job and getting time off for their own medical care, or to care for a loved one with a serious medical condition.
Narrator: The Congressional Accountability Act applies the protections of the Americans with Disabilities Act for both the public and for legislative branch employees. It ensures accessibility and prohibits discrimination based on disability.
The CAA allows up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave for employees with a serious medical condition or who are needed to care for a seriously ill family member. Job-protected leave is also available to help employees manage family affairs when a family member is called to active duty in the armed forces.
Employees may not be disciplined, terminated, or retaliated against for taking FMLA leave. Although employees who take FMLA leave may not always get the exact same job back, they still must receive the same type of appointment, work schedule, status, tenure, and benefits that they had prior to taking FMLA leave.
The Office of Workplace Rights works to help ensure that the legislative branch is free of discrimination and harassment, safety and health hazards, accessibility barriers, and employment and labor violations. If you have questions or concerns about the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Family and Medical Leave Act, or any of your rights under the CAA, reach out to the Office of Congressional Workplace Rights.
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