July 2 Tip of the Week

Reasonable Accommodation Under the ADA

Did you know that job reassignment is considered to be the reasonable accommodation of last resort under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)?  This means that an employer is only obligated to reassign an employee to a new position when there is no feasible way to accommodate the employee in their current role.  The trouble is, job reassignment is often overlooked by employers who think that once there is no way to accommodate an employee in their current role, that employee is no longer a qualified individual.  If you employ 15 or more people, this thinking could lead to a lawsuit under the ADA.  Luckily there are some limits to the reassignment requirement: employers do not need to create a position to reassign the employee to and there must be a vacancy in that different role for which the employee is qualified.  The moral of the story with job reassignment is – be sure that before you throw in the towel and determine that there is no way to accommodate an employee with a disability, consider whether you can transfer that employee to a different, open position in your company for which the employee is qualified.  If you are considering job reassignment or termination of an employee at the culmination of the interactive process – OR you’re thinking to yourself, “What is the interactive process?”

If you are wondering what the ‘interactive process‘ is or have questions about reasonable ADA accommodations, the attorneys at myHRcounsel are here to help you. We can help you navigate the interactive process, and be sure that all avenues are covered before you need to determine that you can or can’t accommodate an employee’s ADA accommodation.