Defining the Three-Headed Associational Disability Claim

1. Expense (the cost of insuring the associated disabled person under the employer’s health plan);
2. Disability by association (a fear by the employer that the employee may contract the disability, or the employee is genetically predisposed to develop a disability that his or her relatives have); and 
3. Distraction (the employee is inattentive at work because of the disability of the associated person).

 

We, as employers, often treat employees with family medical issues with kid gloves. We not only worry about potential liability under the ADA, but also the FMLA. Yet, these employees are not bulletproof. In Williams, the plaintiff had suffered years of marginal performance, and the employer had enough. Without something in addition to the mere fact that his wife suffered from a rare disease, this court was unsympathetic to his claim, which should provide hope to employers that want to hold all employees accountable to reasonable performance standards.