Seldon Bofinger & Associates, P.C.

Advancing individual rights and liberties

Archives for October 2016

Getting a New Position

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GETTING REASSIGNED

       The EEOC is clear that when an employee asks to be reassigned as part of a request for Reasonable Accommodation, the employer has to look for a new position – and that doesn’t mean just in your department, but everywhere.  If you work for a large employer, that may really work to your advantage if you are qualified for positions that exist in multiple parts of an agency or a business. 

       A reassignment is not easy to get as an RA.  It has to be an accommodation of last resort.  But that doesn’t mean a new job is out of reach.  And if you’ve been harassed at the workplace and devastated by it, getting reassigned away from a supervisor may be the only accommodation that works.

RA and Your New Supervisor

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You fought long and hard for your Reasonable Accommodation with medical reports attesting to your disability – maybe it’s from the harassment you suffered at work or injuries and anxieties you sustained because of your military service.  Your former supervisor finally got it but now that person moved on and you have a new supervisor, someone who just can’t get his or her head around the idea that you are teleworking more than a minimal amount.  Maybe a leave restriction is being held over your head.

Never mind that your physician signed off on a statement that this is an absolute necessity for you to manage your symptoms and that having to go through all this scrutiny and uncertainty again is very unhealthy for you.  The EEOC and the ADA protect disabled employees from just this sort of arbitrary reconsideration and possible revocation of RA.  When you request renewal or extension of RA, you will probably have to provide your employer with limited, tailored information to show that nothing significant has changed and that you still need the same RA or a modified one.  But that type of a request does not trigger the start of the RA process all over again and you shouldn’t be put through this.

RA and Your Supervisor

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You are of course usually required to support your request for Reasonable Accommodation with a medical report and records.  Sometimes this includes having a physician working for your employer review and evaluate your medical records.  That’s to be understood and a regular part of the RA process and sometimes a physician .  What is not a part of the process is your supervisor demanding to see your medical records.  Your employer and any physician they hire has to keep your medical records in strict confidence and away from your managers.  Supervisors only entitled to have information necessary to evaluate your workplace limitations and the feasibility of necessary accommodations.  Don’t be cowed into giving them more than that.

Robert Seldon
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