Dive Brief:
- A midnight-shift employee of the West Penn Allegheny Health System who was fired for misconduct can’t revive her Americans with Disabilities Act and Family and Medical Leave Act claims because she never asked for reasonable accommodation or leave, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals determined Monday (Hileman v. West Penn Allegheny Health System Inc.).
- The worker was reported and investigated for sleeping on the job, texting during work and failing to stock rooms. When she met with her manager, she denied sleeping but said she “might have shut [her] eyes” to relieve her dry eye caused by diabetes medication. She said she would adjust her medication but did not ask for an accommodation or medical leave, the 3rd Circuit said. She was fired shortly after.
- While the worker mentioned diabetes and medication-related issues, the 3rd Circuit said, it wasn’t until she was confronted for sleeping on the job. Further, she did not ask for accommodation. “Employers’ duty to accommodate is real, but it is not a license to speculate. They must respond to what they know — not what they might imagine,” the court said. “And they certainly need not go digging for disabilities without a signal that one exists.”
Dive Insight:
In Hileman, the 3rd Circuit examined the division of responsibility between an employer and employee when it comes to disclosing and accommodating a disability. While employers have a duty to accommodate, employees are ultimately responsible for alerting employers to their disabilities and asking for needed accommodations.
The worker in Hileman “waited until the last possible moment, on the brink of being fired, to raise any work-related concerns,” Judge Stephanos Bibas of the 3rd Circuit wrote. “That timing is weighty. And it has swayed our sister circuits in assessing whether an employer had fair notice of a disability-related need.”
Bibas noted that nothing would have suggested the worker had a condition that was affecting her ability to work. While she mentioned dry eye and fatigue, these experiences are not uncommon, he said. “There was no obvious impairment, no prior disclosure, and no circumstances that would put the employer on notice that ordinary workplace issues masked a disability,” Bibas said.
In contrast, Bibas pointed to a case in which an employer was aware a worker had a serious mental health condition, had suffered a breakdown and was hospitalized (Taylor v. Phoenixville School District). In that case, a note from the worker’s son asking for an accommodation “was adequate to serve as a request.”
Further, employers are allowed to enforce neutral workplace rules — such as not sleeping on the job — even when the conduct stems from a disability, Bibas said. And the worker could not point to nondiabetic workers who committed comparable transgressions but were allowed to remain on the job.
The ADA does not require that employees use the specific words “reasonable accommodation,” but they do need to alert employers they have a medical condition that requires an adjustment to be able to do their jobs, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said in a guidance.
An attorney for the plaintiff did not immediately respond to a request for comment.