Disability Discrimination in Public and Government Agencies

My experience suggest that one of the reason for disability discrimination and failure to comply with disability laws in public / government agencies is the ignorance of disability laws and not understanding the obligations of the employer toward disabled workers among the managers and human resources personnel in these agencies.

Some of the managers that make critical decision of how to reasonably accommodate and employee and what constitutes an effective, reasonable accommodations have very little or no background or training in either human resources or disability laws. Many supervisors lack basic understanding of what qualifies as disability at workplace under ADA or FEHA. Some of the managers in state, county and municipal agencies get very high up in the ranks due to good performance and length of service alone, as usually there is no requirement to get high education in the public sector employment in order to continue to be promoted. While allowing employees from all backgrounds and all walks of life to have opportunities in high management, not requiring additional education or training when it comes to human resources and basic laws that govern employee’s right and duties leads to many employment and wrongful termination lawsuits against these agencies. Most often we hear about lawsuits against Department of Corrections and Department of Health and Human Services.

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