Question

Under what circumstances might a request for a disability accommodation be denied and contrast this concept with the denial of a religious practices accommodation. If a worker becomes disabled after hire would it be lawful to transfer such individual to a lesser position? Would the same apply with respect to an employee who converts his/her religion after hire and such converted religion prohibited work on designated days?

Answer 1

Under what circumstances a request for a disability accommodation might be denied?

I am going to assume that you are talking about US labor laws. If not, you would probably have to check with the appropriate country’s law, since labor laws have minor variances across the globe.

In the US, the ADA (Americans with Disabilities) Act deals with this particular issue. As per the ADA Act, if a qualified employee request for an accommodation to the employer, then the employer will HAVE to provide the same. The only condition under which the employer can deny is she can prove that providing such an accommodation will “create an undue hardship”. What that means is that if the company doesn’t have enough resources (read money) to provide such an accommodation, then the employer can deny so. Now, the tricky part is that there are no specific guidelines through which the employer can prove. All such requests/disputes are taken up on a case—by-case basis.

Denial of a religious practices accommodation

Here again, the assumption is that we are talking about US labor laws.

The concept is similar in this as well. The employer has to provide this facility under religious reasons unless the business entity can prove that providing such an accommodation will “cause undue hardship” for lack of resources. One important feature is that under federal law (Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964), the employee is not mandated to provide such a request in writing. So even if the request is made verbally, the employer should take due note of the same.

If a worker becomes disabled after hire would it be lawful to transfer such individual to a lesser position?

There is a particular case called Jones vs Aluminum Shapes Inc. in which this kind of a situation was discussed. You may want to read it to get some more clarity.

This again comes under the ADA Act. The act definitely prohibits outright discrimination due to disability. However, at the same time it mandates the employer to provide “reasonable accommodations” only. Hence, if the concerned person was in the profile which requires intense manual labor (for example a brick layer in a construction site) and this person loses both her hand (god forbid), then for obvious reasons she cannot be retained in the same profile. She will have to be accommodated in another profile, even if it means at a lower position/pay scale.

Also, please note that ADA is valid for businesses that have atleast 15 employees. So if the business is a small scale business, there might not be any protection provided under ADA.

Employee who converts his/her religion after hire and such converted religion prohibited work on designated days

An employee must show both that

• He or she has a bona fide religious belief that conflicts with an employment requirement
• He or she informed the employer of this belief

If the same has been done, then the employer is required to accommodate the religious restrictions