Diabetics Discriminated Against In The Workplace

Filed in archive Views on December 31, 2006

It's happening all over: competent and trustworthy employees being fired for having diabetes. Employers claim it's a safety issue. It hardly seems possible that such discrimination could happen these days, but it does.

In each instance, diabetics contend they are being blocked by their employers from the near-normal lives their doctors say are possible. But companies say they are struggling with confusion about whether diabetes is a legitimate disability and with concern about whether accommodating diabetics is overly expensive, hazardous and disruptive.

The debate will probably intensify. The number of diabetics in the United States swelled by 80 percent in the past decade. Experts say that the disease is on its way to becoming a conspicuous fact of life in the country's labor force, raising all sorts of issues for workers and managers.

What do you think? A cautious step, or a complete injustice?