An informal discussion letter from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is generating some controversy over whether an employer can require a high school diploma as an employment prerequisite. The informal letter (without the force of a law or regulation) was written in response to a question about persons who are unable to earn a diploma because of learning disabilities, thus making them ineligible for jobs that require a high school education. The EEOC said that a diploma requirement that screens out someone based on a disability must be job related and consistent with a business necessity or it may violate the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). If it meets this requirement, the employer must then show that the person denied the job could not perform its essential functions, even with accommodations. Thus, according to the EEOC, while an employer need not prefer an individual with less qualifications (e.g. someone without a diploma who could not earn one due to a disability), it cannot flatly refuse to even consider him/her if they could perform the job with accommodations.

Is this type of information of interest to you? If you would like to recieve twice monthly HR legal updates such as that featured in this post you can sign up to recieve the HRN HR Legal Update eNewsletter. Simply go to: http://www.hrnonline.com/HR/WhitePapers/whitepaper-newsletter.asp.