November 2018

  Reassignment to a vacant position can be a reasonable accommodation for a disabled employee.  For it to be a reasonable accommodation the disabled employee must be asking for an existing position that is vacant.  The employer is not required to create a new position for a disabled employee or displace another employee from his or her job to make room. UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT ARKANSAS October 3, 2018

  A nurse was given Family and Medical Leave Act leave for surgery for a chronic esophagus problem related to a childhood incident of swallowing poison.  When her twelve weeks leave expired her physician wrote a note saying she was not able to return and requested indefinite medical leave.  Her employer gave her one more week of leave, then terminated her.  The nurse sued for disability discrimination claiming her esophagus problem, which did affect her ability to speak, was a disability. 

  The US District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas saw two fatal flaws in her legal case.  Medical leave for a defined period of time can be a reasonable accommodation for an employee’s disability.  However, open-ended medical leave with no definite anticipated end point is not reasonable.  The nurse asked to be allowed to work from home.  The hospital considered her request but turned it down on the basis that no work-from-home position was available at the hospital. Easter v. Hospital, 2018 WL 4778045 (E.D. Ark., October 3, 2018).