Employer-Provided Leave and the Americans with Disabilities Act

100% Healed Policies

An employer will violate the ADA if it requires an employee with a disability to have no medical restrictions -- that is, be "100%" healed or recovered -- if the employee can perform her job with or without reasonable accommodation unless the employer can show providing the needed accommodations would cause an undue hardship.^[7] Similarly, an employer will violate the ADA if it claims an employee with medical restrictions poses a safety risk but it cannot show that the individual is a "direct threat." Direct threat is the ADA standard for determining whether an employee's disability poses a "significant risk of substantial harm" to self or to others. If an employee's disability poses a direct threat, an employer must consider whether reasonable accommodation will eliminate or diminish the direct threat.

Example 13: A clerk has been out on medical leave for 16 weeks for surgery to address a disability. The employee's doctor releases him to return to work but with a 20-pound lifting restriction. The employer refuses to allow the employee to return to work with the lifting restriction, even though the employee's essential and marginal functions do not require lifting 20 pounds. The employer's action violates the ADA because the employee can perform his job and he does not pose a direct threat.

Example 14: An employee with a disability requests and is granted two months of medical leave for her disability. Three days after returning to work she requests as reasonable accommodations for her disability an ergonomic chair, adjusted lighting in her office, and a part-time schedule for eight days. In response, the company requires the employee to continue on leave and informs her that she cannot return to work until she is able to work full-time with no restrictions or accommodations. The employer may not prohibit the employee from returning to work solely because she needs reasonable accommodations (though the employer may deny the requested accommodations if they cause an undue hardship). If the employee requires reasonable accommodations to enable her to perform the essential functions of her job and the accommodations requested (or effective alternatives) do not cause an undue hardship, the employer's requirement violates the ADA.

[7] See consent decree in EEOC v. Brookdale Senior Living Communities, Inc. (D. Colo. No. 14-cv-02643-KMT)(resolved August 17, 2015). EEOC alleged that the company refused an employee's request to return to work after leave for fibromyalgia because she was unable to return to work without restrictions or accommodations. See also consent decree in EEOC v. Americold Logistics (W.D. Ky. No. 4:12-cv-47-JHM)(resolved June 14, 2013). In this case, the EEOC alleged that the employer refused to explore or to provide reasonable accommodation that would allow an employee with chronic lumbar back pain to return to work and instead fired the employee because she was not 100% healed. See also Kauffman v. Petersen Health Care VII, LLC, 769 F.3d 958 (7th Cir. 2014)(permitting an employer to require that an employee be 100% healed would negate the ADA's requirement that an employer provide reasonable accommodation if it enables an employee to perform his job).