Employers cannot simply place a disabled employee on unpaid leave and consider their obligations under the Americans with Disabilities Act fulfilled, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled.
The court reversed a lower court’s decision that had granted summary judgment in favour of the employer on a failure to accommodate claim brought by a disabled worker.
The employee had specifically requested light-duty work and reassignment to other available positions, including customer service and sales representative roles he was arguably capable of performing.
Rather than engaging meaningfully with those requests, the employer placed the employee on indefinite unpaid leave without discussing the specifics of his limitations or contacting his physicians.
The Fourth Circuit found this approach fell short of the employer’s legal obligations, sending a clear signal to businesses about the standard of engagement required under disability law.
The ruling from Sarahanne Y. Vaughan and Jennifer M. Trulock of Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP highlights two critical areas where the employer failed in its duties to the worker.
The first failure centred on the interactive process, which requires employers to work alongside employees to determine what reasonable accommodations can actually be provided.
The court noted that no one at the company discussed the employee’s specific limitations with him or responded adequately to his requests for light-duty work assignments.
The second failure concerned the use of unpaid leave as a catch-all accommodation, with the court directly asking whether it is “consistent with the ADA for an employer to decline to reassign a disabled employee to an available position he would be able to perform.”
The court acknowledged that unpaid leave may be a reasonable accommodation in some circumstances, but made clear it is not always sufficient, particularly when reassignment options are available and have been requested.
Employees with bona fide disabilities under the ADA are entitled to reasonable accommodations to enable them to perform the essential functions of their jobs, a right the court affirmed must be taken seriously.
The ruling does not mean employers are required to create new positions or guarantee reassignment, but they must genuinely explore available options before defaulting to placing a worker on leave.
Businesses should review their accommodation policies and ensure human resources teams understand that failing to engage in the interactive process can itself constitute a violation of the ADA.
The Fourth Circuit’s decision affirmed the lower court’s ruling on the employee’s separate unlawful termination claim, meaning only the failure to accommodate issue was sent back for further consideration.
Employment law advisers are urging employers across the region to treat this ruling as a prompt to audit how accommodation requests are currently being handled and documented within their organisations.