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HR professionals, get ready: New rules on disability accommodations will go into effect on January 1.

Congress recently approved a proposal to significantly overhaul the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The ADA Amendments Act will now reach the president’s desk. Earlier this week, the White House released a statement praising the bill and announcing that the president looks forward to signing it.

The changes, effective January 1, 2009:

• More “major life activities” — The bill gives a hefty list of examples of what’s considered a major life activity, which would expand the definition beyond what most courts have ruled. (The list of examples: “caring for oneself, performing manual tasks, seeing, hearing, eating, sleeping, walking, standing, lifting, bending, speaking, breathing, learning, reading, concentrating, thinking, communicating and working.”)
• No mitigating measures — The amendments would also reverse a Supreme Court decision that allows the consideration of “mitigating measures” — i.e., medicine or equipment that lessens an impairment — when deciding whether an employee is disabled.
• Protection for conditions in remission — If a condition is in remission, the employee will still be ADA-protected if the condition would qualify as a disability when active.

For more on the proposed ADA Amendments Act, go here.

It’s an HR question the courts have been wrestling with lately: When do psychological disorders qualify employees for protection under the Americans with Disabilities Act?

In one recent case, an employee with bipolar disorder sued his company after he was fired. The condition made him “irrational, delusional, and unable to communicate effectively.” When he had to be hospitalized,  the company decided he could no longer do his job.

He sued, claiming the termination violated the ADA. The court agreed.

First, the court determined the employee was protected by the ADA. The bipolar disorder substantially limited several of his major life functions — specifically, the life activities of “thinking, communicating, interacting with others and caring for himself.”

Then, the court ruled that he could have performed his job with a reasonable accommodation — time off to get treated. Other courts have ruled that leaves of absence are considered reasonable accommodations for employees with psychological disabilities.

The case went before a jury, which awarded the employee a $91,000 payout.

EEOC v. Voss Electric Co.
No. CIV-02-92-C (W.D. Okla. March 17, 2003)

The Dallas District Office alleged in this ADA lawsuit that defendant, a distributor of commercial lighting products, discriminated against charging party, a long-term sales employee, when it fired him because of his disability, bipolar disorder. Charging party’s psychiatric disability severely impaired a number of his major life activities, including thinking, interacting and communicating with others, and the ability to take care of himself. After he asked for medical leave to receive inpatient treatment for his bipolar disorder, defendant discharged him by taping a termination letter to the front door of his home. The case was resolved through a consent decree which provides for payment of $91,250 in compensatory damages to charging party. Defendant agrees not to discriminate on the basis of disability, perceived disability or record of disability in any employment action and further agrees not to retaliate against any person who opposes an unlawful employment practice or files a charge of discrimination.