Accommodating employees with disabilities, as required by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), when the accommodation involves frequent unscheduled absences from work poses a difficult dilemma for employers. The employee contends her condition requires an exemption from the attendance policy, while the employer finds unplanned absences disruptive to business.
Recently, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has taken a hard line on attendance policies that result in automatic termination of disabled employees who exceed the maximum number of days off allowed (see “EEOC scrutinizes blanket policies for ADA violations“). And with the expansion of conditions covered by the ADA, more employers are confronting the problem of whether attendance policy exemptions constitute a “reasonable accommodation” under the law.
