The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requires an employer to provide whatever reasonable accommodation is needed to enable an individual with a disability to perform the essential functions of the job, as long as the person is otherwise qualified to do the job and providing the accommodation would not impose an undue hardship on business operations.
A recent ruling by all of the sitting judges on the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals – underscoring the importance the court majority attached to its decision – serves as a helpful reminder that there still will be situations where an employer is relieved of its duty to provide an accommodation because an employee is in fact not “otherwise qualified.”
In Faidley v. UPS of America, Inc., No. 16-1073 (8th Cir. May 11, 2018) (en banc), the full appeals court ruled that an employee removed from his delivery driver position after being permanently restricted from working more than eight hours per day was not qualified because the job required more than eight hours a day, and there was no reasonable way to accommodate him without removing that essential job function.
A copy of the Eighth Circuit’s ruling in Faidley is available here.
Members of the Center for Workplace Compliance (CWC) can read more here.