EEOC Issues Q&A on Cancer in the Workplace

Earlier this year, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) issued a set of questions and answers about cancer in the workplace and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The EEOC addressed five major areas on whether and when cancer is a disability under the ADA:

1. Questions that may and may not be asked of job applicants who may have cancer;
2. Questions that may and may not be asked of an employee who has cancer;
3. An employer's obligation to keep medical information regarding an employee's cancer confidential;
4. An employer's obligations to accommodate employees with cancer; and
5. Whether and when an employee's cancer may be considered a “direct threat” which prevents an employee from performing his or her job.

The Q&A does not contain much in the way of new information, but rather gives examples that help illustrate the position the EEOC will take on issues regarding cancer as a disability. Since these are the types of issues that often puzzle human resources managers ' and land on the desk of in-house counsel ' the EEOC's Q&A serves to provide some assistance on how to handle these issues.