Diabetes doesn’t just take its toll on your physical health. Thanks to diabetes discrimination, the disease and how people react to it can affect your emotional wellbeing, and even your corporate wellness. Diabetes discrimination can occur anywhere, and so, if you’re diabetic or not, it’s important to learn what constitutes discriminatory behaviour, and how to fight it.
Your employer is not allowed to discriminate in hiring, firing, discipline, pay, promotion, job training, fringe benefits or in any other term or condition of your employment, based on a disease or disability. If you have diabetes, you are considered to have a disability because of the substantial limitations of your endocrine system. Thanks to the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), employees who miss work because of a serious health condition are protected, and allowed up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave. This leave does not have to be taken all at once, but can be taken as intermittent leave, or used an hour at a time if that is what is needed.
The American Diabetes Association has provided a checklist that can help you to identify any problems you might be having at your workplace. Are you prevented from taking breaks at work to check your blood glucose levels, eat and take insulin? Is your employer not providing reasonable accommodations (such as breaks, permission to keep diabetes supplies nearby, leave for treatment, permission to use a chair or stool if you have diabetic neuropathy, or accommodations for diabetic retinopathy)? Was your job or promotion offer taken back when you said you had diabetes? Do you have to have specific blood glucose levels in order to keep your job?
If you have answered “yes” to any of those questions, or are experiencing something similar, start tackling unlawful discrimination by keeping a log of actions and copies of important documents, such as emails and letters from your employer or performance reviews. Also, get a copy of your company’s employee handbook and leave policy, so you know your rights, and educate your employer of the issues you face, as they may not be aware of them. If education is not enough, then you can take further action.
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