Risk & Business Magazine Spectrum Insurance Magazine Fall 2017 | Page 27

BIG ADA WIN
The Court of Appeals also disagreed
with Severson, stating that “[t]he ADA
is an antidiscrimination statute, not a
medical-leave entitlement.” 11 The Court
focused on the purpose of the ADA,
which is to prohibit “discrimination
against a ‘qualified individual on the
basis of disability.’” 12 The ADA defines
“qualified individual” with a disability as “a
person who, ‘with or without reasonable
accommodation, can perform the essential
functions of the employment position.’” 13 functions of the job upon returning
to work. 17 After pointing out that the
EEOC’s interpretation ran contrary to
Supreme Court precedent, 18 the Court
of Appeals reasoned that the EEOC’s
approach rendered the length of the
leave irrelevant. 19 The Court rejected the
EEOC’s interpretation of “reasonable
accommodation” as “untenable” because it
would transform the ADA “into a medical-
leave statute—in effect, an open-ended
extension of the FMLA.” 20
Taking a common sense approach, the
Court ruled that the ADA limits reasonable
accommodations “to those measures
that will enable the employee to work” 14
and does not require accommodations
that excuse the employee from working. 15
According to the Court, “an employee who
needs long-term medical leave cannot
work and thus is not a ‘qualified individual’
under the ADA.” 16 Despite the Court rejecting the argument
that a long-term medical leave constitutes
a reasonable accommodation, the Court
stated that intermittent or short leaves
of “a couple days or even a couple of weeks”
may be reasonable accommodations in
certain cases. 21 Employers must therefore
continue to evaluate leave requests on a
case-by-case basis.
The EEOC, which appeared as amicus
curiae, argued that a long-term medical
leave of absence qualifies as a reasonable
accommodation if: (1) it has a definite
duration, (2) the employee requests it
in advance, and (3) it will enable the
employee to perform the essential
Employers must also be aware of and
manage any differences between the
ADA and applicable state laws addressing
disability accommodations. In Wisconsin,
for example, the state Supreme Court
has interpreted the WFEA to require
greater accommodation efforts than the
ADA. 22 Employers in most other circuits
should also not view the Severson decision
as a license to d