The Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) requires both employer and employee to participate in good faith in an interactive process to determine how and whether an employee's disability may be accommodated reasonably. The Sixth Circuit explained these duties and obligations and its recent decision, Rorrer v City of Stow, No 13-3272 (February 26, 2014):
The ADA also "mandates and individualized inquiry in determining whether an [employee's] disability ... disqualifies him from a particular position." The individualized inquiry is an "interactive process" in which "both parties have a duty to participate in good faith." The purpose is to "identify the precise limitations resulting from the disability and potential reasonable accommodations that could overcome those limitations." The ADA mandates this process to ensure that employers do not disqualify applicants and employees based on "stereotypes and generalizations about a disability, but based on the actual disability and the effect the disability has on the particular individual's ability to perform the job." "If this process fails to lead to reasonable accommodation of the disabled employee's limitations, responsibility will lie with the party that caused the breakdown."
The Sixth Circuit also identified three circumstances in which an employer's bad faith could be inferred:
(1) failing to discuss a reasonable accommodation and a meeting in which the employer takes an adverse employment action against an injured employee;
(2) failing to assist the employee and seeking an accommodation; and,
(3) relying on a cursory medical examination and summary conclusion that a disabled individual is not fit for employment.
But all of this goes nowhere and does nothing unless the employee proposes a specific reasonable accommodation, as the Sixth Circuit also explained: "Although mandatory, failure to engage in the interactive processes only an independent violation of the ADA if the plaintiff establishes a prima facie showing that he proposed a reasonable accommodation."
An employee seeking to invoke the leverage of the ADA should be prepared to propose one or more specific reasonable accommodations for his or her disability as discussed in an earlier post: ADA: Should An Employee Propose a Specific Reasonable Accommodation?
Robert L. Abell
www.RobertAbellLaw.com
