No matter how disgusting a creature you think Charlie Sheen is, his accusations against his former employer who fired him are genius. The guy is actually claiming in a lawsuit filed yesterday he was canned because his managers thought he was disabled. And his bozo bosses actually said as much to him and to the media.

It’s an interesting case that opens up the question of whether an employer can terminate or take any negative job action against a worker that has a disability or is perceived as having a disability. I say perceived because we don’t know for sure what Sheen suffers from. It’s all media speculation at this point. But even if he isn’t disabled under the strict definition of disabled, the law also protects against adverse employment action if an employer just thought a worker was disabled and as a result did something crummy to that worker.

Sheen doesn’t say in his suit that he has a disability, but he does say his employer thought he had a mental and physical disability and thus fired him as a result instead of accommodating his disability, which is required under federal and California law. (more…)