Effects of Disability are the Same as the Disability

That employers must be sensitive to the needs of their disabled employees has been clear for most savvy companies. However, what about that employees related-but-detrimental conduct? So long as it flows from the disability, it is part of the disability, and therefore protected. Gambini v Total Renal Care, 486 F.3d 1087 (9th Cir 2007): conduct resulting from the disability is part of the disability and cannot serve as the basis for termination any more than the disability itself.

In that case, Gambini's performance was slipping, and she blew up (swearing and being disruptive) during a negative performance evaluation. When it was revealed that a psychological disorder may have been the cause, the employer sent her to the hospital for an evaluation. There, she was re-diagnosed with bi-polar disorder, and went out on medical leave.

Meanwhile, the employer decided that the conduct exhibited by Gambini during the meeting made it impossible for her to work there, and terminated her. She sent a note explaining that the complained-of behavior was a consequence of her disability, and asked to be reinstated. The employer refused.

The Court ruled that, "the jury was entitled to infer ...that her 'violent outburst' [was] a consquence of her bipolar disorder, which the law protects as part and parcel of her disability. In those terms, if the law fails to protect the manifestations of her disability, there is no real protection in the law because it would protect the disabled in name only."

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