Kansas: “A federal jury Tuesday awarded a former McPherson police officer who was found sleeping on duty almost $1 million in wages and damages. Matthew B. Michaels alleged the city violated his civil rights, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Family Medical Leave Act and the Kansas Wage Payment Act. He was fired from the McPherson Police Department in July 2012. Michaels said he was discriminated against because of a sleep apnea disability.” [McPherson Sentinel]
One Comment
Not clear from the stub of an article whether he both had a sleep apnea diagnosis and shared it with his employer as a disability prior to sleeping on the job.
If this diagnosis was entertained only after getting fired, then no chance the department should be on the hook for anything. And if he was somehow officially ‘disabled’ prior to sleeping on the job, perhaps he should have been assigned to desk duty, where an alert employer could ‘help’ him remain wakeful.