At The Podium

While the Americans with Disabilities Act requires employers to provide reasonable accommodations for its disabled employees, determining exactly what is “reasonable” is sometimes difficult, especially when the requested accommodation has never been tried in the workplace. Is an emotional support hamster a reasonable accommodation for an employee who suffers from PTSD? What about offering extended leave to an employee that has already exhausted all of his FMLA leave?

In their presentation at EmployerLINC18: Workplace Issues In The News, labor and employment attorneys Nathan Whatley and Elizabeth Bowersox discuss the various issues that come into play for employers when they are asked to consider service animals, emotional support animals, teleworking, and extended leave as possible accommodations. The session also includes a review of the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals’ ruling on “retroactive leniency” as an accommodation, as well as a discussion of mental health conditions as a disability.