On Wednesday, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals held that the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”) does not require employers to forego a job-competition policy as part of the reasonable accommodation process for disabled employees. See EEOC v. St. Joseph’s Hosp., No. 15-14551, 2016 WL 7131479 (11th Cir. Dec. 7, 2016).
In the St. Joseph’s case, Leokadia Bryk was a nurse in the psychiatric ward of St. Joseph’s hospital. After 7 years on the job, spinal stenosis and a hip replacement caused her to use a cane for assistance walking. The hospital found that the cane prevented her from performing the essential functions of her job, because psychiatric patients could use the cane as a weapon.
After making that safety determination, the hospital gave Ms. Bryk 30 days to identify and apply for other positions. The hospital waived its typical internal transfer policy, which would have prohibited Bryk’s transfer, because she received a disciplinary warning. The hospital also made its Manager of Team Resources available to help Ms. Bryk with the process.
The hospital did not waive its policy which required internal applicants to compete for positions. Ms. Bryk applied for a position as an Education Specialist at the hospital and met the minimum requirements for the position. Nevertheless, the managers hiring the Educational Specialist found that she was not the most qualified applicant and rejected her application. The hospital terminated Ms. Bryk’s employment when she did not obtain another internal job at the hospital.
The EEOC sued for Ms. Bryk and argued that the reasonable accommodation requirements of the ADA required noncompetitive reassignment of Ms. Bryk to the Education Specialist position because she met the minimum requirements for the job. The Eleventh Circuit disagreed, finding that “the ADA does not require reassignment without competition for, or preferential treatment of, the disabled.” St. Joseph’s, 2016 WL 7131479 at *8. “Passing over the best-qualified applicants in favor of less-qualified ones is not a reasonable way to promote efficiency or good performance. In the case of hospitals, which is this case, the well-being and even the lives of patients can depend on having the best-qualified personnel.” Id. at *9.
The Eleventh Circuit left open a small possibility that “special circumstances” might require waiver of a job-competition policy, but did not find any such circumstances in Ms. Bryk’s case. Thus, St. Joseph’s provides some assurance to employers that, in most cases, they will not violate the ADA’s reasonable accommodation policies by requiring disabled employees to comply with a job-competition policy.