The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals recently found that an employer was not required to allow an employee to work from home as a reasonable accommodation for her pregnancy/disability. Everett v. Grady Memorial Hosp. Corp., No. 16-13495, 2017 WL 3485226 (11th Cir. Aug. 15, 2017).
At the outset, let me stress that the reasonable accommodation analysis under the Americans with Disabilities Act is a case-by-case determination. The Eleventh Circuit’s ruling in Everett depends on the specific facts of that case. In other cases, involving other jobs, work-from-home might be a reasonable accommodation. If one of your employees suffers from an impairment and asks to work from home, proceed very carefully.
In Everett, Ana Everett was employed as the Program Manager for Grady Memorial Hospital’s car seat program. She was diagnosed with a high-risk pregnancy in February 2015 and granted FMLA intermittent leave at that time. On April 28, 2015, Ms. Everett presented a doctor’s note placing her on “light duty.” In May 2015, her doctor diagnosed her with an “incompetent cervix” and said she should work exclusively from home. Grady refused to allow Ms. Everett to work from home. Instead, Grady placed her on unpaid leave until her doctor allowed her to return to work on October 8, 2015.
Ms. Everett asserted several claims against Grady — including a claim for failure to accommodate her pregnancy/disability because she was not allowed to work from home. This is where the fact-intensive nature of the accommodation analysis comes into play. The issue was whether Ms. Everett could perform the essential functions of her job if she worked from home. In short, the Eleventh Circuit reviewed the relevant facts and found that teaching courses, supervising employees and meeting with patients were essential functions of the job. Ms. Everett could not perform those essential functions if she worked from home.
Ms. Everett argued that Grady could assign those job duties to another employee as a reasonable accommodation, but the Eleventh Circuit rejected that argument. “‘[T]he ADA does not require the employee to eliminate an essential function of the plaintiff’s job’ or place it upon someone else.” Everett, 2017 WL 3485226 at *5.
Again, the Eleventh Circuit’s decision in Everett relied upon the fact that Ms. Everett’s presence at the work site was crucial to teach courses, supervise employees and meet with patients. In other cases, particularly in those involving computer-intensive jobs, it might be reasonable to allow an employee with an impairment to work from home.