§12111 Definitions

Summary

Defines important words used in the rules about employment and disability. Commission means the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). Covered entity means employers, employment agencies, labor groups, and joint labor‑management committees. Direct threat means a serious risk to others’ health or safety that reasonable accommodation cannot remove. Employee means a person who works for an employer; for work in another country it includes U.S. citizens. Employer means a person in an industry affecting commerce who has 15 or more employees each working day in at least 20 calendar weeks in the current or preceding year, and includes their agents; for the first two years after this subchapter’s effective date the threshold is 25 employees. Employer does not include the United States, a corporation wholly owned by the U.S. government, an Indian tribe, or a tax‑exempt private membership club (not a labor organization) under section 501(c). Illegal use of drugs means use, possession, or distribution of drugs illegal under the Controlled Substances Act; it excludes drugs taken under a licensed health‑care professional’s supervision or other uses allowed by that Act or federal law. Drug means a controlled substance listed in Schedules I–V of the Controlled Substances Act. The words person, labor organization, employment agency, commerce, and industry affecting commerce have the same meanings as in section 2000e. Qualified individual means someone who can do a job’s essential duties with or without reasonable accommodation; an employer’s judgment and any written job description made before hiring are evidence of those duties. Reasonable accommodation may include making facilities accessible, changing hours or job duties, reassignment to a vacant job, altering equipment or tests, or providing interpreters or readers. Undue hardship means a change that would cause significant difficulty or expense, judged by factors such as the nature and cost of the change; the facility’s and employer’s financial resources and size; the number of employees and facilities; and the type, structure, and geographic relationships of the employer’s operations.