To alleviate confusion among employers, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said it plans to clarify and update its guidance on leave as a workplace accommodation.
In a June 8 meeting, commissioners offered their insight and took suggestions from stakeholders. “I’ve been told that many employers have difficulty with leave as an accommodation,” said Stuart J. Ishimaru, one of the EEOC’s five commissioners. Despite the numerous documents the EEOC has issued on this topic, employers are still getting it wrong, he said. Perhaps, Ishimaru said, too much information is part of the problem. Brian East, a senior attorney from Texas Disability Rights Collecting agreed, noting that collecting leave guidance in a single place would be helpful.
Commissioner Victoria A. Lipnic said that the EEOC wants to focus on, among other things, inflexible leave policies. Some have felt that the commission’s Americans With Disabilities Act guidance on this topic has been inconsistent, if not contradictory, she said. Christopher J. Kuczynski, the commission’s assistant legal counsel and director of its ADA/GINA policy division, agreed that more and more companies are adopting generous no-fault attendance policies and want to know whether they can implement and enforce them uniformly. The commission has never taken the position that the adoption of such policies is a per se violation, he said, but employers need to understand that an exemption to such a policy may be considered a required accommodation.