ORD-2011-020 Amendment to Personnel Ordinance, Article II for Disability & Reasonable Accommodation

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Orange County Personnel Rules and Regulations Manual Issue Date: 6/22/2011 $ An employer may inquire as to an applicant's ability to perform essential job related functions. Further, an employer may ask an applicant to describe or demonstrate how, with or without reasonable accommodation; the applicant will be able to perform essential job- related functions. Determining essential job functions requires an analysis of the position to determine what functions are essential as a matter of business necessity. Determining essential functions of a position should be completed before recruitment is opened for a position. Those fundamental or essential job functions should then be documented on various instruments including position classification questionnaires, classification specifications, recruitment matrixes, and job announcements. A job function may be considered essential for any of several reasons. The primary reasons are as follows: 1) the reason the position exists is to perform that function; 2) there is a limited number of employees available among whore the performance of that job function can be distributed; and/or 3) the function is highly specialized so that the incumbent in the position is hired to perform that particular function. Some ways to substantiate this are through the amount of time spent performing the function and the consequences of not requiring a- person in the job to perform that function. For example, if lifting 50 pounds is an essential function of a position, it would be appropriate to ask an applicant, "Can you lift 50 pounds ten times an hour ?" However, it would be inappropriate to inquire, "Do you have any disabilities which would prohibit you from lifting 50 pounds at +a time ?" The first manner of inquiry does not solicit information as to why the person may not be able to perform -the function, merely if they are able to perform an essential function of the position. Note that if the inquiry is being made about lifting, then it should be an essential function of the job. Inquiries or assessments involving physical standards must first be approved by the Human Resources Department based nn job requirements and business necessities. If the function can be eliminated or removed from the job then the function is probably not essential and inquiries on the subject should be avoided as they cannot be used as a basis for screening out otherwise qualified applicants with disabilities. 5. Alcohol and Illegal Drug Usage Current use of an illegal substance is not considered a disability under the Act. However, if someone currently uses illegal drugs and has another covered disability, that person would be covered under the ADAAA based on the other covered disability. Under the ADAAA, Orange County still has the right to prohibit the use of alcohol or illegal drugs at the work place and may still prohibit employees from being under the influence of alcohol or illegal drugs at the work place. A drug user or alcoholic may be held to the same qualification standards for employment or job performance and behavior standards as other employees. If someone's substandard work performance is related to alcohol or illegal drug usage, that person may still be Page 6