The Americans with Disabilities Act generally requires that employers provide reasonable accommodations to workers with disabilities.
And while “reasonable” depends on the circumstances, there are three workplace modifications that are unlikely to be reasonable accommodations, according to Daniel Stern, member of the firm at Dykema.
Indefinite leave
“There are some things we can generally rely on,” Stern said in a Sept. 26 webinar. “You really can’t make absolute statements, but indefinite leave [...] has been pretty commonly and consistently, I should say, found to not be reasonable.”
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has said the same. The ADA doesn’t limit the amount of leave an employer may need to provide, and enforcement officials and case law have said extension requests can be reasonable if the employee provides an end date.
“However, indefinite leave — meaning that an employee cannot say whether or when she will be able to return to work at all — will constitute an undue hardship, and so does not have to be provided as a reasonable accommodation,” according to EEOC guidance.
Less stress
Similarly, “a job with less stress is generally not a reasonable accommodation,” Stern said.
Courts have ruled several times that the ADA doesn’t entitle an employee to a transfer to a less stressful manager or less stressful team, for example.
Notably, however, the Job Accommodation Network, a U.S. Department of Labor service, previously encouraged employers to dig into requests, saying stress associated with a disability or medical condition could fall under the ADA’s protection.
Bumping other employees
Finally, employers generally do not need to bump other employees from their jobs to comply with the ADA, Stern said.
The EEOC is clear on this issue as well: “You are not required to create a position or to bump another employee in order to create a vacancy,” according to agency guidance.
Employers should note, however, that if a position is open, “there are some people who take the position that you should consider putting someone in that open position [...] even if the person needing the accommodation is less qualified [than other candidates],” Stern said, referring to an ongoing split among the federal appeals courts about noncompetitive reassignment as a reasonable accommodation.
