News & Analysis as of

Essential Functions Hiring & Firing Corporate Counsel

Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein LLP

Fourth Circuit Upholds Employer's Denial of Remote Work During Pandemic

During the COVID-19 pandemic and afterwards, employers have faced a growing number of requests for remote work arrangements based on a medical disability. The Americans with Disabilities Act requires employers to grant...more

Seyfarth Shaw LLP

Tenth Circuit Highlights Limits on Employers Defining Essential Functions of a Position

Seyfarth Shaw LLP on

Seyfarth Synopsis: The Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a summary judgment award on an employee’s failure-to-accommodate claim. The Court’s decision focused on the employer’s improperly narrow delineation of the...more

Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart,...

Tenth Circuit Upholds Employer’s Decision to Deny Telework Accommodation Request Under Rehabilitation Act

On September 15, 2021, the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a district court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of an employer. In Brown v. Austin, the Tenth Circuit found that an employee’s telework, weekend work, and...more

Jackson Lewis P.C.

Regular Attendance Is Essential Even If Employer was Lenient In The Past, Fifth Circuit Holds

Jackson Lewis P.C. on

An employer’s past leniency in applying and enforcing its attendance policy did not contradict the employer’s later position that regular worksite attendance was required for employment, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the...more

Proskauer - Law and the Workplace

Emerging Trend: ADA Does Not Cover Potential Future Disabilities

Heeding the adage “no one knows what the future may hold,” the Seventh, Eighth and Eleventh Circuits have uniformly refused to extend protections of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) to employees with a perceived risk...more

Jackson Lewis P.C.

Regular, On-Site Attendance Is Essential Function Of Auditor Job, Sixth Circuit Rules

Jackson Lewis P.C. on

The Sixth Circuit previously explained in Hostettler v. College of Wooster, 895 F.3d 844 (6th Cir. 2018) that regular, in-person attendance is not a per se essential function of every job. Rather, employers must tie...more

Littler

Ontario, Canada: When an Employment Contract Is Frustrated Due to the Employee’s Permanent Disability, the Employer’s Duty to...

Littler on

Employers in Ontario will likely welcome the decision in Katz et al. v. Clarke, 2019 ONSC 2188 (Divisional Court), which addressed the scope of the duty to accommodate in the event of an employee’s permanent disability. ...more

McAfee & Taft

Change in job duties may necessitate change in ADA accommodation

McAfee & Taft on

It was a close call, but a court recently denied an employee’s Americans with Disabilities Act claim that her employer had improperly refused a request to continue working from home as an accommodation. With the growth of...more

Seyfarth Shaw LLP

Close Call: American Airlines Wins ADA Case by One Vote, but the Warning Signals for Employers are Loud and Clear

Seyfarth Shaw LLP on

Seyfarth Synopsis: In a 2-1 decision in Bilinsky v American Airlines, Inc., 2019 WL 2610944 (7th Cir. June 26, 2019), the Seventh Circuit recently affirmed American Airlines’ summary judgment win against a former employee who...more

Polsinelli

Four Circuits Agree: Regular and Reliable Attendance is an Essential Job Function

Polsinelli on

Recently, the United States Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals reaffirmed that regular and reliable attendance is an essential function of most jobs under the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”). Lipp v. Cargill Meat...more

Seyfarth Shaw LLP

District Court Clarifies That “Disability” Requiring Workplace Accommodation Does Not Entitle Plaintiff to Disability Benefits

Seyfarth Shaw LLP on

Seyfarth Synopsis: A recent case from the Western District of North Carolina contains a helpful example of how the standards applicable to an employee’s request for accommodation of a disability differ from those for...more

Jackson Lewis P.C.

Appellate Courts Agree: Regular, Reliable Attendance Is Essential Function Of Most Jobs

Jackson Lewis P.C. on

Recent decisions from the Second, Fifth, and Eighth Circuit Courts of Appeals exemplify the growing consensus amongst courts that even employees with a disability are generally required to comply with company attendance...more

Jackson Lewis P.C.

Employers Asserting “Essential Job Function” Defense Need A Clear Job Description.

Jackson Lewis P.C. on

Just a few months ago, we wrote about a case where a federal district court denied summary judgment to an employer who had asserted that attendance at work was an essential job function. The Court held that although regular...more

FordHarrison

Common Sense Prevails: Waiving a Drug Test as a Condition of Employment is Not a Reasonable Accommodation

FordHarrison on

In Cotto v. Ardagh Glass Packing, Inc., 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 135194 (D.N.J. Aug. 10, 2018), a case of first impression, the federal district court held that neither New Jersey’s Law Against Discrimination (LAD) nor...more

Jackson Lewis P.C.

Your Presence Is Required: Employee Unable To Travel To Job Site Was Not “Qualified” Within The Meaning Of The ADA

Jackson Lewis P.C. on

In recent years, particularly with technology making it easier for employees to work remotely, courts have struggled to determine whether onsite attendance is an essential job function under the Americans with Disabilities...more

FordHarrison

California Federal Court Says Employers Need Not Approve Multiple Leaves of Absence Where an Employee was Totally Disabled and...

FordHarrison on

The Southern District Court of California, in Ruiz v. ParadigmWorks Group, Inc., held that an employer was not at fault for failing to grant an employee’s request for multiple medical leaves of absence where the employee was...more

Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein LLP

Employer Not Required to Provide Indefinite Leave for a Temporary Disability

Despite the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s more nuanced position, federal courts have generally rejected attempts by plaintiffs to claim that an indefinite leave of absence is a required reasonable accommodation...more

Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart,...

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Issues Groundbreaking Decision Allowing Medical Marijuana User to Assert State Law Handicap...

On July 17, 2017, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court issued a unanimous ruling in Barbuto v. Advantage Sales and Marketing, LLC, allowing medical marijuana users to assert claims for handicap discrimination under the...more

Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart,...

Is Never Returning to Work a Reasonable Accommodation? Fifth Circuit Says No

On March 15, 2017, in Moss v. Harris County Constable Precinct One, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals reaffirmed that an employer is not required to accommodate an employee who is requesting indefinite leave as a reasonable...more

Ruder Ware

Employee Absenteeism Due to Disability: What are Reasonable Accommodations?

Ruder Ware on

One of the most troubling issues faced by human resource professionals is how to address an employee with a disability that impacts their ability to report for work. A good example is an employee who suffers from episodes of...more

Jackson Lewis P.C.

Breaks and Flexible Hours Not a Reasonable ADA Accommodation for Frequently Absent Employee, Court Holds

Jackson Lewis P.C. on

Employers can easily feel overwhelmed when it comes to enforcing employee attendance standards while providing reasonable accommodation to employees with chronic health conditions. Increasingly, however, court decisions such...more

Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein LLP

Fourth Circuit Rejects Motor Carrier's Defense in Refusing to Hire Driver Diagnosed with Narcolepsy

The Americans with Disabilities Act prohibits employers from refusing to hire qualified individuals with a disability on the basis of their condition, if they can perform the essential functions of the job with or without...more

Tucker Arensberg, P.C.

The Importance of Job Descriptions

The importance of having accurate job descriptions for employees was illustrated by a recent case. In that case, the employee was let go by an employer after suffering a non-work related injury that the employer believed...more

23 Results
 / 
View per page
Page: of 1

"My best business intelligence, in one easy email…"

Your first step to building a free, personalized, morning email brief covering pertinent authors and topics on JD Supra:
*By using the service, you signify your acceptance of JD Supra's Privacy Policy.
- hide
- hide