Dive Brief:

• Mississippi-based Pioneer Health Services, Inc., an inpatient and outpatient healthcare services provider, has agreed to pay $85,000 to settle claims that it violated the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The company refused to provide an employee more than 12 weeks of leave for a liver transplant, in violation of the law's reasonable accommodation requirement, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) had alleged.
• The employer initially granted leave for the surgery but, according to EEOC, refused to engage in the ADA’s interactive process when the employee requested additional time off and ultimately failed to provide a reasonable accommodation. Pioneer then fired her and refused to hire her for an open position several months later, according to the commission.
• EEOC alleged that the employer’s actions amounted to disability discrimination and Pioneer agreed to settle the suit. In addition to the monetary settlement, the employer agreed to provide training to its employees on its ADA obligations and to review and modify its nondiscrimination policies.

Dive Insight:

The ADA requires employers to provide a reasonable accommodation for an employee's disability, unless the company would suffer an undue hardship as a result. EEOC and many courts take the position that leave beyond what the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) requires can be a reasonable accommodation for a disability, and the agency noted in announcing the Pioneer settlement that it will continue to focus on the intersection of the ADA and the FMLA.

One federal appeals court, however, recently adopted a different take on the matter. Late last year, the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that "a multimonth leave of absence is beyond the scope of a reasonable accommodation under the ADA" (Severson v. Heartland Woodcraft, Inc., No. 15-3754 (7th Cir. Sept. 20, 2017)). In a holding described as a blow to the EEOC’s position, the 7th Circuit rejected the federal agency’s argument that employees are entitled to extended time off as a reasonable accommodation under the ADA, saying that such a position transforms the ADA into “an open-ended extension of the FMLA" and an “untenable interpretation of the term ‘reasonable accommodation.’"

The 7th Circuit covers Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin, where that ruling still stands. Court filings show, however, that the U.S. Supreme Court may soon be asked to review the case.