Human Resource Blog

ADA in Illinois for Addictions

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Are employees in Illinois covered by the ADA if they wish to take time off for counseling for addictions?

The Americans with Disabilities Act is a federal Act that does cover many types of disabilities, including addictions. Because the Act is a federal Act, it may apply to employees in Illinois, as long as the employer is covered and as long as the employee has a record of having the addiction.

However, the Act only pertains to employers that have had at least 15 employees working for them for the past year and does not apply to smaller businesses.

In order for an employee to be eligible to take time off under the Act, the employee should have a record of having a physical or mental disability. A mental disability could certainly be an addiction to drugs or alcohol. A physical disability could be a missing limb or a visual impairment.

When an employee has such a disability on record, the employer should be expected to make reasonable accommodations for the employee. In the case of an addiction, the employer should perhaps work with the employee to develop a treatment schedule for the addiction, which may include time off for rehabilitation programs.

Employers are not allowed to take the disability into account when making any employment-related decisions about the employee, such as decisions related to hiring, promotion, training, compensation, termination, or otherwise.

However, the Act only applies to current employees and job applicants of a covered employer and not to customers or clients. Also, the Act only prohibits employers from discriminating against employees for reasons that are directly related to the disability and not for other reasons, such as age or race.

Employers may be able to discriminate against employees that have addictions or other disabilities if the employee is unable to perform the functions of a particular job as a direct result of the disability. For example, if an employee is applying for a job as a beer taster a brewery, but cannot taste the beer because of alcoholism, then the employer may be able to deny the job applicant the job. CB