A hairdresser in a nursing home had restrictions on pushing and lifting after a hysterectomy. Previously, plaintiff pushed wheelchair-bound residents to and from the beauty shop two days a week. When plaintiff notified the nursing home Administrator of her restriction and requested someone else transport the residents to the beauty shop, he refused, claiming that she had to have no restrictions to work there and hiring someone else to transport the clients would be a hardship.
When the plaintiff quit, however, other staff did help the sole remaining hairdresser by pushing residents to and from the beauty shop. The Seventh Circuit determined that the nursing home had not done enough to determine essential functions or reasonable accommodations. Is a task was “essential” to a plaintiff’s job if other employees could do it at a negligible cost to the employer? Kauffman v. Petersen Health Care VII, LLC, No. 13-3661 (Oct. 16, 2014, 7th Cir.).
Employers have to interact with employees to determine whether reasonable accommodations exist for medical restrictions, and whether such accommodations are reasonable. Saying, as the Administrator was alleged to have said, that “we just don’t allow people to work with restrictions” is a sure way to end up in front of a jury. And likely lose.