Terminating the Employment Relationship

Permitting the use of accrued paid leave or providing additional unpaid leave for necessary treatment;

Making employer provided transportation accessible;

Providing reserved parking spaces;

Providing personal assistants to help with specified duties related to the job;

Allowing the qualified individual with a disability to provide and use equipment, aids and services that an employer is not required to provide (e.g., wheelchair); and Other similar accommodations for individuals with disabilities. 96 i. Modifying a Workplace Policy Granting an employee time off from work or an adjusted work schedule as a reasonable accommodation may involve modifying leave or attendance procedures or policies. As an example, it would be a reasonable accommodation to excuse compliance with a policy requiring employees to schedule vacation time in advance if an otherwise qualified individual with a disability needed to use accrued vacation time on an unscheduled basis because of disability- related medical problems, barring undue hardship. 97 In addition, an employer, in spite of a “no- leave” policy, may, in appropriate circumstances, be required to provide leave to an employee with a disability as a reasonable accommodation, unless the provision of leave would impose an undue hardship. ii. Making Facilities Accessible The accessibility of facilities accommodation includes both those areas that must be accessible for the employee to perform essential job functions, as well as non-work areas used by the employees, such as break rooms, lunch rooms, training rooms, restrooms, etc. 98 iii. Addressing Issues the Employee Has Regarding the Commute to Work If an employee’s disability is affected by his or her commute to work, it may be a reasonable accommodation to make changes to the employee’s work schedule or work location. 99 iv. Job Restructuring The accommodation of job restructuring imposes a new burden upon the employer, which was not clearly imposed under the Rehabilitation Act. Under the Rehabilitation Act, the courts are divided as to whether job restructuring is required as a reasonable accommodation. The ADA and FEHA clearly require this. A job may be restructured by reallocating or redistributing nonessential, marginal job functions. An employer is not, however, required to reallocate essential functions of the position, since the ability to perform such functions is a prerequisite to being a qualified individual with a disability. 100 The aforementioned rule was illustrated in one case under the Rehabilitation Act, where an employer did not have to accommodate a postal worker by eliminating the task of

Terminating the Employment Relationship ©2019 (s) Liebert Cassidy Whitmore 44