Do you suffer from a chronic health condition? While this undoubtedly makes many daily activities particularly challenging, it doesn't have to make working impossible. The United States has protections in place to help you earn a good living while managing your chronic illness. To help you learn more about your rights and responsibilities, here are a few key things that your employer can and cannot do.

Your Employer Cannot Discriminate

Many chronic ailments are treated as disabilities under the Americans With Disabilities Act. If your illness falls under the protected categories, your employer is not allowed to use it to discriminate in any way.

Examples of discrimination could include failure to hire a qualified candidate due to their disability, failure to promote or give raises when applicable, unlawful termination, or even allowing a hostile work environment to occur. Discrimination can sometimes be easy to spot, but at other times, it is very subtle. 

Your Employer Can Make Accommodation

Is there some way that your workplace or job description could be adjusted in order to make your continued work possible? If so, the ADA laws require the employer to consider how to accomplish this.

If you have an underlying condition that puts you at high risk for Covid-19 complications, for instance, a reasonable accommodation might be to allow you to work from home or to work in a location protected from the public or other employees. If you have vision problems, that reasonable accommodation may be to assign specific tasks to another employee or to provide equipment specifically designed for the visually impaired. 

Your Employer Can Refuse Accommodations

The right to accommodations for disabilities is not unlimited. It is referred to as being "reasonable accommodation."

Reasonable accommodation takes into consideration the cost and scope of changes as well as the budget of the employer. It may not be reasonable for a small employer to be expected to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on specialized equipment so you can work from home during the pandemic, for instance. 

Your Employer Cannot Retaliate

Retaliation is any act meant to penalize an employee for exercising their legal rights in the workplace. In the case of an employee protected by ADA laws, this can occur if the employer retaliates for such things as having to accommodate an employee or being unable to terminate that employee at will. Retaliation could range from the creation of a hostile work environment to outright demotion or termination. 

Whatever you deal with in managing a chronic health issue, you shouldn't have to worry about your employment as well. And by understanding your rights and the limitations of legal protection, you can craft a career that provides for your family without having to subject yourself to dangerous or painful environments.

Want to learn more? Start by consulting with a workplace discrimination lawyer service in your area today.