labor lawAdivision of labor law center

A recent federal award of $2.3 million will benefit disabled workers nationwide. ODEP, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Disability Employment Policy, made the two-year grant to a consortium that will establish a center to increase employment and self-sufficiency for adults with disabilities.

Rutgers University has been chosen to lead the program, which offers research, information, technical assistance and training to individuals who are disabled. The grant totals $2,306,066 in all.

“The talents of Americans with disabilities are not fully tapped in our economy. This $2.3 million grant will help advance employment opportunities for workers with disabilities and help them build better lives for themselves and their families,” said U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao.

The consortium is led by the John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers., the State University of New Jersey located in New Brunswick, N.J., will conduct research, develop and disseminate information, and provide technical assistance and training in five targeted. The targeted areas are critical leadership areas identified by ODEP’s research over the past six years.

The program’s specific objectives are to increase:

• Partnership and collaboration to provide employment or employment-support services
• Economic self-sufficiency for disabled workers
• Use of self-directed accounts providing more choice and control for job seekers
• Information on tax-incentives, financial education, social security work incentives, and other strategies
• Universal tactics for employment services
• Flexible work options for disabled workers with complex barriers to employment

Other members of this dynamic consortium include the American Public Human Services Administration of Washington, D.C., The National Leadership Consortium for Developmental Disabilities at the University of Delaware in Newark, Delaware, The Elizabeth M. Boggs Center for Developmental Disabilities at the University of Medicine and Dentistry in New Brunswick, New Jersey and the Community Solutions Group LLC in Arlington, Virginia.

The ODEP is the nation’s first assistant secretary-led office that specifically addresses policies that impact the employment of people with disabilities.

The Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP) was authorized by Congress in the Department of Labor’s 2001 budget. This was the first time that the agency had been promoted to sub-cabinet status, headed by an Assistant Secretary of Labor.  Recognizing the need for a national policy to ensure that people with disabilities are fully integrated into the 21st Century workforce, the Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao delegated authority and assigned responsibility to the Assistant Secretary for Disability Employment Policy. ODEP is a sub-cabinet level policy agency in the Department of Labor.

In recent years, the ODEP has developed innovative methods for the 3,500 One-Stop Career Centers nationwide to serve people with barriers to employment, including individuals with disabilities. It has established DPNs, or Disability Program Navigators, to assist workers with disabilities in identifying and using resources in 45 states.

The Office of Disability Employment Policy provides national leadership by developing and influencing disability-related employment policy as well as practice affecting the employment of people with disabilities. Its vision is “A world in which people with disabilities have unlimited employment opportunities.”

Under the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, or ADA, employers cannot discriminate against disabled employees in hiring, promotions, pay or termination. The court ruled that the repeated taunts, teasing and name-calling created a “hostile work environment” for the disabled employee.

The ADA was enacted on July 26, 1990 and prohibits private employers, state and local governments, employment agencies, and labor unions from discriminating against qualified individuals with disabilities in job application procedures, hiring, firing, advancement, compensation, job training, and other terms, conditions, and privileges of employment.

Under the ADA, employers must make reasonable accommodations for employees with a disability. Reasonable accommodations might include providing a phone with a volume control for a hearing impaired employee, or a ramp for a wheelchair employee. In this case, reasonable accommodations were not the issue – childish insults were. 

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