Diabetics Confront a Tangle of Workplace Laws

In the workplace there seems to be some confusion about whether diabetes is a legitimate disability and with concern about whether it is overly expensive, hazardous and disruptive to accommodate the illness. The New York Times published an in-depth story today on the complications some diabetics face trying to hold on to their job. Employers have fired diabetics, particularly those whose blood sugar levels fluctuate wildly, for safety or other reasons. But many workers fight back by filing lawsuits claiming they suffer from a disability that should be accommodated by the employer under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The story cites the case of a mortgage loan officer in Oregon who was denied permission to eat her lunch at her desk to tame her sugar fluctuations and was eventually fired. It also quotes Craig Crispin, a well-known Oregon employment lawyer.
The key issues, according to the story:

… diabetics contend that they are being blocked by their employers from the near-normal lives their doctors say are possible. But the companies say they are struggling, too, with confusion about whether diabetes is a legitimate disability and with concern about whether it is overly expensive, hazardous and disruptive to accommodate the illness. …

Doctors … say that with improved medications and methods of self-testing blood sugar, most diabetics can do almost any job if they properly manage their illness. Yet myths about the disease persist, advocates say, leading many companies to shun diabetic employees. ….

… Federal law bars diabetics from joining the armed services and prevents diabetics on insulin from becoming commercial pilots.
Innumerable diabetics, though, are engaged in more mundane jobs uninvolved in matters of life and death. For these people, secretaries and factory workers and programmers, a "reasonable accommodation," like permission to eat at one’s desk or to be excused from fluctuating shifts, can make the difference in whether they can function.

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission offers a factsheet about diabetes in the workplace.

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