Can your boss fire you if your spouse or child is disabled and their medical bills are high, or because your employer thinks you’ll slack off at work because you’re caring for a loved one?

Under the Americans With Disabilities Act, this is a legal no no.

Alas, some employers are doing this exact thing, or at least alleged to be doing this, according to an interesting story in the Wall Street Journal today.

The number of employees filing charges against companies who are firing or in some way discriminating against non-disabled workers because they care for disabled family members is rising. This is called “association discrimination” and it’s not allowed under the ADA.

Did you guys even know this protection existed? Probably not.

But you might be hearing more about it because there are two law suits pending that deal with this little known ADA provision and the outcome of these lawsuits will likely impact many employees who now care for a disabled loved one, or who cover that family member under their employer’s insurance.

According to the article, many of these lawsuits don’t end up benefiting the employee because it’s often hard to prove an employer took some sort of job action against a worker because of his or her disabled family member.

However, the two suits now in the courts “appear to have strong circumstantial evidence” to back up worker claims of discrimination by association.

One case in particular involving Phillis Dewitt whose husband had terminal prostate cancer appears to be strong.

This from The HR Specialist:

Phillis Dewitt worked as a nurse at Proctor Hospital. She received promotions and excellent evaluations that referred to her as an “outstanding clinical manager who consistently goes the extra mile.”

While Dewitt may have gone to lengths for the hospital, the hospital didn’t seem to have returned the favor. The hospital provided health insurance for employees and their dependents through a hybrid self-insurance and catastrophic coverage plan. The hospital covered medical expenses up to $250,000 per year, after which an insurance policy covered the rest.

The HR office regularly tracked expenses and noticed that Dewitt’s husband was racking up big bills for prostate cancer. At one point, Dewitt’s supervisor pulled her aside and suggested that she put her husband into hospice care rather than undergoing chemo and other expensive treatment.

Then, after a financial crisis in which the hospital invited managers to come up with creative solutions to budgeting, Dewitt was fired. Her husband died about a year later.

She sued, alleging association disability discrimination. The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals said her case should go forward. It reasoned that there was direct evidence of association discrimination. A jury will decide how much that might be worth. (Dewitt v. Proctor Hospital, No. 07-1957, 7th Cir., 2008)

Given the aging of the working population and the never-ending drumbeat in Corporate America to cut labor costs, I think it’s safe to say we’ll be seeing more of these cases…unfortunately.