$1,000,000 payout for Sleep Apnea Lawsuit

General Discussion on any topic relating to CPAP and/or Sleep Apnea.
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49er
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Re: $1,000,000 payout for Sleep Apnea Lawsuit

Post by 49er » Wed Oct 22, 2014 12:20 pm

cathyf wrote:
49er wrote:Wow cathyf, if you're talking about a place like a hospital or fire department, that is pretty bad if you got fired bringing a cpap to the on-call room. On what basis would an employee be fired for doing that? If you don't want to answer, I understand.
That was a hypothetical, 49er -- just pointing out that the disability law is weird that way. There was a case where a person who was on antidepressants was fired because the boss didn't want crazy people working there. The employee sued under the ADA, and the ruling was that the antidepressants WORKED, so the person wasn't disabled by the criteria of the law, and so was not protected against being fired.

Like I said, bizarro world. Sometimes the law works that way.
Thanks cathyf for clarifying as I had a literal moment:). As I previously said in my response to Den, the employers have all the cards stacked in their favor and it is quite hard to win a case against them.

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VVV
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Re: $1,000,000 payout for Sleep Apnea Lawsuit

Post by VVV » Wed Oct 22, 2014 12:50 pm

49er wrote: management can be cold-hearted and brutal
I have done a lot of work in the last 20+ years for companies who buy bankrupt companies. It is somewhat common for me to interview the chief executives of bankrupt companies and find they were "soft" managers who had the "interest" of employees in mind and particularly tried to "save" jobs.

The end result they got was no jobs whatsoever when their company closed.

I would much rather work for a company whose management cut costs, inefficiencies and nonproductive workers regularly. Companies that are managed like this tend to survive and keep people gainfully employed.

Making reasonable accommodations to allow any underperforming employee to come up to performance standards is one thing. Carrying people on the payroll who can't perform well is another thing. A thing that might lead to everyone losing their job.

And BTW, underperforming rates among people with disabilities is lower than among the able bodied.
.....................................V

jacobsbd
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Re: $1,000,000 payout for Sleep Apnea Lawsuit

Post by jacobsbd » Wed Oct 22, 2014 8:22 pm

I don't know anything about this specific case. Frequently when I look into the details of a case, I find the jury knew something that was not mentioned by the press.

Most of the incidents where a successful lawsuit has been brought the company did some very stupid things that could have been easily avoided. They tell the person that the disability is why they are being fired. Or they document it in writing somewhere. In some cases, management wants to fire someone for legitimate causes (or the manager is a racist, or...) and are dumb enough to see the disability as a "valid reason" to terminate someone.

This could be as stupid as the employee needing to show compliance to keep a drivers license and a manager not wanting to "waste my time with this" So the person was terminated.

We really can't know unless we have access to the trial transcript.
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chunkyfrog
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Re: $1,000,000 payout for Sleep Apnea Lawsuit

Post by chunkyfrog » Thu Oct 23, 2014 5:10 am

I kept my head down and took power naps in the can.

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PST
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Re: $1,000,000 payout for Sleep Apnea Lawsuit

Post by PST » Thu Oct 23, 2014 8:12 am

chunkyfrog wrote:I kept my head down and took power naps in the can.
I would just doze off at my desk, then wake up certain that everyone must be giggling to one another: "Looks like Old PST must be drinking his lunch again." It was a remarkable relief to learn that there was a name for what was wrong with me and that it was treatable.