Understanding Accommodation Requirements for Placed Employees

Learn best practices in a joint employer context for reasonable accommodation requests and who is responsible for pre- and post-employment offer accommodation requests.

The reasonable accommodation process is hard enough to navigate as an employer. Common difficult questions abound. How do I know if my employee has a disability and do I have to give them the accommodation they are asking for? What is undue hardship? How much of an interactive process must I go through and who initiates it? Recently, with the pandemic, what a direct threat is has been reborn. When you throw placed workers in the mix, all these questions remain and new ones arise. Employers and placement agencies can begin to feel like they are sinking in sorghum. It shouldn't have to feel this way. This information explores all of these questions in general and as they apply to employers and placement agencies when placed workers are the ones asking for an accommodation. This material should help you determine whether you are a joint employer and at what stage of the employment process you might become one. This topic will explore who is liable for the accommodation and when. After taking a good look at the interactive process, you will come away with some best practices and additional resources for steering through the regulatory maze and learn about the reasonable accommodations process with regard to placed workers.

Faculty

Sean J. Oliveira

Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart, P.C.