You must be careful when you craft and enforce policies addressing prolonged absences. Even when an employee has exhausted her statutorily protected leave, you should consider offering additional leave as a reasonable accommodation unless you can demonstrate that you would suffer an undue hardship because of the continuing absence.
|
In a recent case, an employee took medical leave from her job as a medical-surgical nurse. During her leave, she was moved from her full-time position to a part-time position and then terminated.
She claimed that an extended leave would be a reasonable accommodation for her disability and that her eventual discharge was disability discrimination and retaliation for her continued requests for extended leave. A magistrate judge recommended that the case advance to trial, ruling against the hospital’s attempt to dismiss the case on “summary judgment.”