If you’re an employee who wants to continue working remotely, and your employer insists you return to work in their corporate offices, and you have a medical condition, you may have grounds to insist on remote work.
Here’s what’s happening in a federal court in Georgia and what it means to you. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) filed a disability discrimination lawsuit against an employer on behalf of a plaintiff/employee who asked to work from home due to underlying medical issues (a lung disease).
This lawsuit, the first of its kind in the U.S, was filed against a metro Atlanta company on behalf of an employee who asked to work from home due to her COVID-19 concerns.
When the pandemic began in March 2020, the employer requested that she work from home two days each week. Soon after that, the employer allowed all employees to work from home four days each week.
The employee, who felt she had an increased risk for COVID-19 requested that she return to her prior two-day a week work-from-home schedule. The company refused and then fired her.
According to the EEOC, the employer’s previous remote working arrangements constitute evidence that she could accomplish the essential functions of her job while working from home.
For more on this case, you can view https://www.ajc.com/news/lawsuit-in-georgia-may-shape-who-gets-to-keep-working-from-home/PWLH34YXKFHQRKFOXUD6PPIPAM/
If you like factual, valuable information provided in this post, you might also appreciate Managing for Accountability: A Business Leader’s Toolbox (Business Expert Press, 2021), https://bit.ly/3CTFTKV
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Lynne! This is a great post about return-to-work-in-office vs. concerns about being continued to allow to work remotely. It looks like reasonable accommodation, performance of essential job functions, and evidence from previous actions are the biggies here. Employers need to remember what they’ve said and done, and where they’ve gone, before deciding that their power to fire is a fun one to use and should be preferred over other possible courses of action.
Susan, completely agreed.