Employer groups already have filed lawsuits to fight the enforcement of new federal ergonomics standards, but the California law that goes into effect Monday faced little opposition in the Legislature and has triggered no such preemptive action. It protects from employment discrimination people with a wide range of impairments and medical conditions that some courts have held are not covered by the ADA, including HIV infection, AIDS, hepatitis, epilepsy, seizure disorders, diabetes, clinical depression, bipolar disorder, multiple sclerosis and heart disease. Eighty percent are thrown out on summary judgment. With the new definition, it's going to be much more difficult to get cases dismissed. Patricia Yeager, executive director of the California Foundation for Independent Living Centers, said such criticism is predictable.
Employers look at people with disabilities as a burden, period.
So I don't have much sympathy for them. There's no question about that. But, Frankfurt said, it is largely a recapitulation of existing California protections for the disabled, which have always been greater than those at the federal level. You'd see some courts applying the ADA definition of disability when they have a state case in front of them. You'd have other courts relying only on state law when deciding a state case.