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An Analysis of Illegal Cancer Discrimination in the Workplace
in Colorado & the U.S. at Large Why do cancer patients and survivors continue to suffer workplace discrimination? As an enlightened society, we are long past the days when a cancer diagnosis was a death sentence for patients and a lasting stigma for survivors…or are we?
Cancer discrimination can be precisely defined, but its occurrence is not easily quantified. In general, it occurs in the workplace when an employer or co-worker treats an employee differently because of his or her cancer disability (when we say differently we of course mean in a negative way).* But we are aware of no studies that have counted the instances of this kind of discrimination, either in Colorado, the U.S. or internationally. This is partially due to the fact that many, if not most such cases go unreported.
Understandably, patients actively under treatment do not have the time or energy to pursue their legal options when they have problems in their workplace. Even survivors who have reclaimed their health often want to put the entire experience behind them, including any discrimination they may have suffered while on the job. They just want to move on. Then there are those who would like to pursue their rightful remedies, but do not know where to turn and simply give up that pursuit.
The cases that we, various government agencies and private attorneys hear about are only the tip of the iceberg. The rest are submerged in anoniminity.
Then what is the magnitude of the problem of cancer discrimination? Where is it occurring in the cycle of diagnosis, treatment, recovery and survivorship? Once recent study found that most patients and their caregivers found their employers supportive during treatment. Only one in ten was not.
But how do those findings reconcile with the negative reports we are seeing?
If one is in the 10% that have problems with their job, the fact that 90% of their peers do not is of no consolation. We also believe that the kind of workplace discrimination we are seeing tends to raise its ugly head later in the cycle; most often after a patient has recovered and has become a survivor.
Adrian’s support from her employer and coworkers was second to none while she
was a patient undergoing treatment. There were no problems accommodating her condition on the job, including taking necessary time off. Her problems with her
job did not begin until her employer thought she was "cured."
Although a cancer survivor still has a disability, its nature is less apparent to employers and coworkers after treatment has ended and long-term recovery has begun. They may become somewhat desensitized to the survivor’s ongoing needs, and progressively less supportive. The employer begins to see the survivor-employee less as a disabled person who must manage a lifelong recovery, and more as a normal person not with a disability, but with a particular liability.
* For an overview of the subject, visit the EEOC webpage summary.
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