An employee’s request for disability leave until “September or October” wasn’t specific enough to render the time off a reasonable accommodation, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals held Tuesday (Coffman v. Nexstar Media Inc.).
The employee, a former account executive at a Nexstar news station, was allowed to work remotely in the weeks leading up to her twins’ birth to accommodate a pregnancy complication. Once they were born, she took Family and Medical Leave Act leave.
She experienced additional complications and was unable to return to work by the time her FMLA leave ran out at the end of June 2022. An HR representative reached out twice — once in June and once in July — to inquire about a return date.
The employee said she was “still under intense care” and had an upcoming surgery that would require a recovery time of about 4-6 weeks and then another surgery in October.
A few days after the second inquiry, the employer fired her, saying it could no longer hold her job. She sued, alleging that additional leave or remote work would have been reasonable accommodations required by a state law that mirrors the Americans with Disabilities Act.
A federal district court dismissed her claims, finding that the employee failed to demonstrate the existence of a reasonable accommodation that met her needs.
On appeal, the 4th Circuit agreed. The employee clearly communicated an indefinite period of recovery, it said: She might recover in about four-to-six weeks, but also had a tentative follow-up surgery planned. “Five months into her absence, the best she could offer was: “[I] probably [will] be released in September or October,” according to court documents.
“At bottom,” the appeals court said, “indefinite leave is not a reasonable accommodation, and, here, unpaid leave amounted to indefinite leave.”
She also failed to demonstrate that she could have worked remotely, the court determined. “[A] plain reading of her communications does not support this” contention, it said. Moreover, the court noted, she was on short-term disability, which is generally reserved for individuals who cannot work (although some courts have accepted explanations for such perceived discrepancies).
While the ADA does not put a limit on leave like the FMLA — and may require leave extensions — it also doesn’t require employers to accommodate requests for “indefinite” leave.
Generally, courts and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission have said that means employees must provide an end date. For example, a future date on which an employee would be evaluated by a doctor was not a return date, the 5th Circuit held in 2021. A four-week extension, however, was potentially reasonable, the 9th Circuit said in 2020.
Notably, EEOC has said there is no length of time that would be per se unreasonable. UPS famously paid $1.7 million in 2017 to settle an EEOC lawsuit challenging its 12-month no-fault attendance policy.
The policy allowed workers to take a year of unpaid medical leave, but it did not allow for extensions. EEOC alleged that the plaintiff in the case could have returned to work after just two more weeks’ leave and such a request would have been reasonable for UPS.