2 EASY WAYS TO REGISTER
Return to On-Site Work:
Getting Reasonable Accommodation Right for Federal Employees With Disabilities
Presented by Deryn Sumner, Esq.
Wednesday | April 24, 2024 • 12 - 1:30 p.m. ET
REGISTER NOWWith the current push for federal employees to return to on-site work, agencies are caught between meeting RTO requirements and federal employees who claim their disabilities prevent them from returning to the workplace. This webinar will help your agency in its RTO efforts without violating the Rehabilitation Act by unlawfully denying reasonable accommodation.
Covering telework as the most common reasonable accommodation request, attorney Deryn Sumner will outline the process for determining when full-time telework should be offered as a reasonable accommodation. You’ll also explore issues related to denying full-time telework, including alternative accommodations of hybrid work and situational telework, complete with case examples. Also supported by case examples, you’ll learn about accommodation options for on-site work, such as worksite changes and job restructuring.
You’ll leave with best practices to:
- Use the interactive process effectively to find a reasonable accommodation
- Determine if, and what, medical information (or more medical information) should be requested to address an accommodation request
- Assess whether telework is the only effective accommodation or if an employee can be effectively accommodated on-site
- Determine that a requested accommodation is an undue hardship and defend that decision on review
- Apply recent EEOC decisions to employees’ requests for reasonable accommodation
- And more!
Meet Your Trainer
Deryn Sumner, Esq., is a Partner at Gilbert Employment Law, as well as Co-Chair of the firm's Federal Sector EEOC Practice Group. She focuses her practice on representing federal employees and agencies before the EEOC and has worked on hundreds of cases involving claims of employment discrimination on the basis of disability, race, age, religion, retaliation, and other bases. She also has experience representing employees and agencies in cases of whistleblower retaliation and adverse action challenges before the MSPB. Ms. Sumner is the co-author of several books on federal sector employment law.
Who Should Attend
- Disability program managers
- EEO program officials
- Reasonable accommodation practitioners
- EEO directors and civil rights practitioners
- Attorneys
- EEO specialists
- EEO counselors
- Agency representatives
- HR professionals
Registration Information Main Site (required for Additional Site registrations): $295 per connection
Additional Site for Teleworker: $115 per connection
REGISTER NOW
Selecting and Framing Federal Employee Disciplinary Charges: Keys for Success
Presented by Sam Vitaro, Esq.
Wednesday | May 29, 2024 • 12 - 1:30 p.m. ET
REGISTER NOWProperly selecting and framing the charge is the key to a successful federal disciplinary case. And since you can’t undo a charge, it must be done correctly from the start or your entire case is at risk. Learn directly from a former MSPB administrative judge and EEOC supervisory attorney how to put together proper charges in MSPB cases — the critical first step in making your agency’s discipline stick.
Expert Sam Vitaro will review seminal cases and recent MSPB decisions which govern how charges should be selected and framed — teaching you the right actions to take and mistakes to avoid.
You’ll also gain tips to help ensure charges are upheld on appeal, including how to provide notice to the employee, keep the charges concise, and consider alternative charges. Along with learning the importance of the wording of a charge, including the label, you’ll gain best practices to:
- Select a charge that fits the facts of the misconduct, not the other way around
- Follow the best path for success by establishing a proper charge from the start
- Identify which common charges have an intent element which must be separately proved
- Comply with due process requirements when it comes to charge selection
- And more!
Meet Your Trainer
Sam Vitaro is a Labor Arbitrator, Mediator, and Fact-Finder in private practice. He is a former Administrative Judge with the Merit Systems Protection Board where he decided disputes involving disciplinary matters and EEO claims. Prior to that he served as a supervisory trial lawyer with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Mr. Vitaro is the co-author of MSPB Charges and Penalties, A Charging Manual, the most trusted resource on the subject, which has just published its 12th edition and is available in digital format exclusively on cyberFEDS®.
Who Should Attend
- Agency attorneys
- Employee relations specialists
- Labor relations specialists
- Deciding officials
- HR specialists
- Union/employee representatives
Registration Information Main Site (required for Additional Site registrations): $295 per connection
Additional Site for Teleworker: $115 per connection
REGISTER NOW
Sick Leave Tips to Stay Compliant When Handling Routine and Complex Requests
Presented by Barbara Haga
Wednesday | June 12, 2024 • 12 - 1:30 p.m. ET
REGISTER NOWSick leave is a heavily used employee benefit with wide-ranging legal requirements. Some leave requests are straightforward, while many others require careful analysis of the employee’s particular circumstances. Either way, improperly denying leave will lead to administrative and legal complaints for your agency.
Get guidance to handle any sick leave request straight from noted leave expert Barbara Haga. She’ll break down common trouble areas in sick leave administration and share best practices for complying with statutory and regulatory requirements. You’ll also discover how sick leave interacts with other leave programs, including advanced leave, FMLA leave, unpaid leave, annual leave, and paid paternal leave — often in unexpected ways.
You’ll be equipped to correctly approve or disprove each request by learning circumstances in which the agency must grant sick leave and when employees’ use of leave is limited, and by gaining strategies to:
- Determine if the employee’s documentation is administratively acceptable evidence for sick leave purposes
- Process requests for sick leave substitution of FMLA leave
- Identify who is — and is not — a family member for sick leave purposes
- Recognize when requests for advanced sick leave should be considered and when they can be denied
- Handle requests during an employee’s first year of federal service before sufficient leave accrual
- And more
Meet Your Trainer
Barbara Haga is the president of Federal HR Services, Inc., which provides HR training, consulting, and functional services to federal agencies. She previously served as the Head of Organizational Development and Workforce Relations for NASA Langley Research Center, with responsibility for Center training programs, the Career Transition Assistance Program, and employee and labor relations and benefits functions. Prior to NASA, she worked with the Department of Navy, where her responsibilities encompassed assignments at HRO Norfolk, the Office of Civilian Personnel Management, and the Human Resources Service Center East.
Ms. Haga has had experience in all HR functional areas including delivery of numerous courses and presentations for managers and HR professionals. Her primary areas of expertise are in employee and labor relations, including performance appraisal, dealing with performance and conduct deficiencies, and grievances and appeals.
Ms. Haga writes the regular “Leave Advisor” column for cyberFEDS® and is a popular presenter at the annual FDR Training conference on HR, leave, and performance management topics.
Who Should Attend
- HR practitioners and specialists
- Employee Relations professionals
- Attorneys handling performance and adverse action cases
- ER specialists and attorneys who advise managers on performance management
Registration Information Main Site (required for Additional Site registrations): $295 per connection
Additional Site for Teleworker: $115 per connection
REGISTER NOW