Disability: Job Description vs. Actual Requirements.
Legal Eagle Eye Newsletter for the Nursing Profession
November 2016
In a disability discrimination lawsuit the physical requirements posted in the employer’s written job description are not absolute. The court will still inquire whether the employer actually requires employees in the particular position to perform the functions that the job description lists as essential.
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FIFTH CIRCUIT October 12, 2016A nurse had to have surgery for a torn rotator cuff. Several months after surgery her physician released her to return to work, with a restriction against lifting, pulling or pushing more than ten pounds. Her employer declined to accommodate her physician’s restrictions and terminated the nurse. The US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission sued the nurse’s former employer on her behalf.
The US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit (Mississippi) did not rule definitively whether the nurse was a victim of disability discrimination. The Court did say that when it does rule after hearing all the evidence it will not be bound by the employer’s job description that a direct patient care nurse must be able to lift considerably more than this nurse could. The Court will hear evidence as to the actual demands in the workplace for nurses to lift, pull and push specific weights. That evidence will be relevant to whether this employer could have offered light duty consistent with the nurse’s restrictions as a reasonable accommodation despite the physical demands stated in her job description.
EEOC v. Hospital, __ Fed. Appx. __, 2016 WL 5939424 (5th Cir., October 12, 2016).