Open AccessChevron v Echazabal: Public Health Issues Raised by the “Threat-to-Self” Defense to Adverse Employment Actions
Author(s) -
Mark Barnes,
Kimberlee A. Cleaveland,
Patrik S. Florencio
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
american journal of public health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.284
H-Index - 264
eISSN - 1541-0048
pISSN - 0090-0036
DOI - 10.2105/ajph.93.4.536
Subject(s) - harm , occupational safety and health , supreme court , public health , business , environmental health , political science , medicine , law , nursing
In June of 2002, the US Supreme Court upheld a regulation that allows employers, under the Americans with Disabilities Act, to make disability-related employment decisions based on risks to an employee's own personal health or safety. Previous judicial decisions had allowed employers to make employment decisions based on the threat that a worker's medical condition posed to others but had not addressed the issue of risk posed to an employee's health by his or her own disability. The authors comment on the potential effects of the court's decision for occupational health practitioners charged with assessing the degree of risk and harm of a particular workplace environment and for public health efforts aimed at curbing workplace injury and sickness.