COVID-19 may have “forever changed” how teleworking is viewed as an accommodation under the ADA, but the ADA’s basic principles are still intact, an employee-side attorney noted during a November American Bar Association conference. It’s particularly important to keep that in mind now, she warned, because of “flexibility fatigue,” with exasperated managers demanding more boundaries and structure to hybrid and remote work.
When an employer recalls employees back to the worksite, the ADA doesn’t require it to automatically grant an employee’s accommodation request to continue teleworking, according to the EEOC guidance on COVID-19, the ADA and the Rehabilitation Act. For example, if the employer can effectively address the need with another form of reasonable accommodation at the worksite, it can choose that alternative, the guidance says.
