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Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Under the ADA

By Beverly W. Garofalo and Nicole Anker
February 27, 2004

Employers face many challenges stemming from the fact that the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) protects alcoholic employees from discrimination, including, in some instances, requiring an employer to provide reasonable accommodations to the employee. The ADA also protects drug addicts, as long as the employee is no longer actively engaged in the use of illegal drugs.

The ADA's protection of alcoholics and recovered drug addicts raises questions about an employer's ability to respond to employees who have violated workplace rules prohibiting employees from being under the influence at work. For example, you have a long-term employee who came to work drunk in violation of your workplace rules. The employee states he is an alcoholic and requests a leave of absence to obtain treatment. Can you refuse to grant his request and terminate his employment without violating the ADA? Similarly, what if, rather than requesting an accommodation, the employee resigned and then, having undergone a successful 12-step program, seeks to be rehired? Can you lawfully refuse to rehire him based upon your neutrally applied policy of not rehiring employees terminated for violation of workplace rules?

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