Ten Tips to Help Employers Navigate the “Tetris” of Accommodations

Many different federal and state laws require employers to provide “reasonable” accommodations. These laws include the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA), and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VII), to name a few.

But, as an employer, how do you manage to provide a reasonable accommodation to someone with the need while also effectively and efficiently running your business?

It is not always easy, but here are ten tips to help you facilitate an effective process that not only complies with the law but promotes equal opportunity in the workplace:

1. Develop clear policies and guidelines for your employees to request a reasonable accommodation—and let your employees know what that policy is and where that policy is located. Many a lawsuit could be avoided with open and clear channels of communication.
2. Realize that notice to you, as an employer, of the need for a reasonable accommodation, does not require the employee to use specific words or talk to a specific individual in management. Any member of management with an awareness that an employee might need help to perform the essential functions of their job with or without a reasonable accommodation could trigger the employer’s obligation to provide an accommodation. Managers should report these concerns to human resources. And if the situation is tricky, call an attorney.
3. Engage in a thoughtful and fact-specific interactive process specially tailored to the needs of the employer and the employee.
4. Document each step of your interactive process, including communications from the employee requesting the need for an accommodation, your response, and any submitted medical or any other records to support the requested accommodation, if applicable. Make sure to document your specific and supported reasons for granting or denying the requested accommodation.
5. Identify the essential reason for the accommodation. The type of request matters for how you should handle it. For example, if the accommodation is for a medical reason, then generally, the employer should use the interactive process under the ADA to address that employee’s needs. However, if the employee is requesting an accommodation due to pregnancy, childbirth, or a related medical conditions, including lactation, then that employee is entitled to a reasonable accommodation under the PWFA for a limited period of time, even if, with that reasonable accommodation, she still cannot perform the essential functions of her position. In other words, the PWFA is like the ADA on steroids and requires heightened protections.
6. Appreciate that since the Groff v. DeJoy[1] decision from the United States Supreme Court, accommodations for religious reasons are even easier to obtain. Under Title VII, as an employer, you are required to provide an accommodation when requested for religious reasons unless you can prove that the accommodation causes a “substantial” additional burden to your business.
7. Know that to prove “undue hardship” and qualify for an exemption to a reasonable accommodation, you must demonstrate a significant and unworkable burden to your operations. Just the fact that accommodation will cost you, as the employer, extra money does not often satisfy this “undue hardship” standard.
8. Realize that an employee is required to engage in the interactive process and if the employee refuses to do so, then the employer will not be held liable for failure to grant that employee a reasonable accommodation.
9. Recognize that you, as the employer, have the discretion to determine which reasonable accommodation to grant to an employee under the ADA. You do not have to necessarily accept the employee’s preferred accommodation when other viable options are available and effective.
10. Understand how the ADA, the PWFA, and other laws operate in conjunction with laws such as the Family and Medical Leave Act and state specific leave laws. Employers often get stuck in tricky situations when they move forward without understanding the interplay between these laws.

The truth is accommodations are tricky to navigate.

They are like playing a game of old-fashioned Tetris, where you don’t always know how the pieces can fit together—but somehow—they can. And, sometimes, they only fit together with the help of a skilled attorney, who can walk you through that interactive process—which any of the attorneys in Sands Anderson’s Labor and Employment Team are happy to do.

[1] Groff v. DeJoy, 600 U.S. 447, 468, 143 S. Ct. 2279, 2294, 216 L. Ed. 2d 1041 (2023) (“We hold that showing ‘more than a de minimis cost,’ as that phrase is used in common parlance, does not suffice to establish ‘undue hardship’ under Title VII. . . . We therefore, like the parties, understand Hardison to mean that “undue hardship” is shown when a burden is substantial in the overall context of an employer's business.”)

If you have any questions regarding accomodation issues, please contact a member of our Labor & Employment Team.

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