News & Analysis as of November 17, 2024

Essential Functions

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Hiring & Firing refers to the process of recruiting, interviewing and offering employment and the process of evaluating performance and dismissing employees. Hiring & Firing is a highly regulated area and can create tremendous liability for employers who fail to properly adhere to acceptable employment practices. Some of the potential pitfalls in this area stem from discriminatory hiring practices, improper performance evaluations, and retaliatory firings. less -

Legally Blind Teaching Applicant Deemed not Qualified Under the ADA: 3 Lessons for Schools

Fisher Phillips on 10/22/2024

A school district in Texas recently prevailed in a failure-to-hire lawsuit when the court ruled that a legally blind applicant for a teaching position could not demonstrate that she’d have been able to manage student...more

What Employers Should Know About The EEOC’s Final Rule On The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act

Genova Burns LLC on 4/23/2024

On April 15, 2024, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) issued its final rule interpreting and providing guidance on the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA)....more

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

Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein LLP on 2/16/2024

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

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

Seyfarth Shaw LLP on 12/19/2023

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

Appeals court finds visually impaired employee unqualified for his position

McAfee & Taft on 5/9/2023

In a case that helps employers understand what a “reasonable accommodation” is, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals recently affirmed a lower court’s ruling of summary judgment for a Georgia employer who was accused of...more

EEOC Issues Guidance on Artificial Intelligence and Americans with Disabilities Act Compliance

Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein LLP on 6/10/2022

Artificial intelligence (AI) can help streamline business processes making workers more efficient and driving costs down for the consumer. What happens, though, when an employer uses AI in hiring decisions?...more

Potential ADA accommodations abound, but here are a few declared ‘unreasonable’

McAfee & Taft on 7/19/2021

There is no exhaustive list of potentially reasonable accommodations. Whether an accommodation is reasonable will depend on the unique circumstances of each instance, including the particular employee’s limitations and...more

Fourth Circuit Ruling on ADA Reassignment Has Major Implications for Employers

Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein LLP on 12/4/2020

In the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2002 Barnett decision, the court held that qualified disabled employees are entitled to reassignment to an existing vacant position under the Americans with Disabilities Act if they become unable...more

7th Circuit has Spoken: Two Pound Lifting Limit, and Other Restrictions Can be an Unreasonable Accommodation under the ADA

Seyfarth Shaw LLP on 8/18/2020

Seyfarth Synopsis: Athleisure company is rightfully able to terminate the employment of individual with physical limitations, despite that individual’s ability to delegate such functions of her position. See Tonyan v....more

N.C. Federal Court Allows Former Employee’s Disability Claims to Proceed to Trial

Womble Bond Dickinson on 1/22/2020

A North Carolina federal trial court recently denied an employer’s request to dismiss a former employee’s disability discrimination and retaliation claims under the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”). The case provides a...more

Sitting On The Job: When Sitting Is Requested As An ADA Accommodation

Fisher Phillips on 1/8/2020

The retail setting is a particularly difficult one in which to make accommodations. This is because retail employees engage in a host of different duties that require all manner of physical activities. Those who are...more

Lingering Lateness Later Litigated: 11th Circuit Rules on ADA

Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP on 12/11/2019

What happens if you give an employee an accommodation that goes above and beyond what the ADA requires? Can you change your mind down the road and stop providing that accommodation? Or are you stuck providing that...more

Showing Up to Work: Sixth Circuit Clarifies When Regular, In-Person Attendance Is Required Under the ADA

Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart,... on 11/27/2019

In Popeck v. Rawlings Company, LLC, No. 19-5092 (October 16, 2019), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit affirmed summary judgment for the Rawlings Company on Popeck’s claims under the Americans with Disabilities...more

Emerging Trend: ADA Does Not Cover Potential Future Disabilities

Proskauer - Law and the Workplace on 11/14/2019

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

No Crystal Ball for the ADA: Future Disabilities Not Protected Under Act

Snell & Wilmer on 11/6/2019

On October 29, 2019, a panel of Seventh Circuit Appellate Court Judges held that the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) does not cover alleged discrimination based on future impairments. Shell v. Burlington N. Santa Fe Ry....more

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

Jackson Lewis P.C. on 10/22/2019

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

Drafting Legally Sound Job Descriptions

Schwabe, Williamson & Wyatt PC on 10/1/2019

Job descriptions are a crucial part of recruitment and hiring, and of performing an Equal Pay Act Analysis, classifying employees for purposes of the Fair Labor Standards Act, and developing reasonable accommodations under...more

Change in job duties may necessitate change in ADA accommodation

McAfee & Taft on 8/20/2019

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

Employer’s Good Deed Goes Unpunished—Reliable Attendance Is Essential Function Despite Prior Accommodation Of Employee’s Absences

Jackson Lewis P.C. on 7/31/2019

While it’s true that acts of generosity sometimes backfire on those who offer them, the Court’s ruling in Higgins v. Union Pac. R.R. Co., No. 18-1902 (8th Cir. July 24, 2019) shows this is not always the case. In Higgins, the...more

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

Seyfarth Shaw LLP on 7/11/2019

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

Doctor, Doctor: Fourth Circuit Allows Case to Proceed on Employee Medical Exam

Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP on 3/21/2019

When can you send an employee for a medical exam? In EEOC v. McLeod Health, Inc., the Fourth Circuit recently provided some guidance and allowed a plaintiff’s claim for an illegal medical exam to proceed to the jury despite...more

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

Polsinelli on 2/14/2019

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

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

Seyfarth Shaw LLP on 2/12/2019

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

Job Description Mistakes You Don’t Want to Make

Cozen O'Connor on 1/22/2019

A good job description can equip an employer with the best possible workforce available. Inaccuracies and oversights, however, can entangle your company in litigation for years. Bethany Salvatore and Bryant Andrews talk us...more

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

Jackson Lewis P.C. on 1/4/2019

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

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