New York Attorneys Helping Employees Pursue Reasonable Accommodations For Disabilities
The accommodations you receive in the workplace can be vital tools for doing your work and protecting your career. However, obtaining reasonable accommodations from your employer requires that you understand your rights. At Fisher | Taubenfeld LLP, our experienced attorneys can help you fight for the accommodations you need.
What Are Reasonable Accommodations For Disabilities?
Employers covered by the discrimination laws must provide reasonable accommodations to employees or applicants with disabilities. All covered employers are required to provide reasonable accommodations to disabled employees and applicants unless doing so would cause an undue hardship (i.e., significant difficulty or expense).
A reasonable accommodation is a change in the work environment allowing a disabled person to perform his or her job duties or enjoy the benefits and privileges of employment. The type of reasonable accommodation an employer must provide depends on the employee’s specific disability. It may include, for example:
- Providing special facilities or equipment to allow an employee to do his or her job.
- Allowing an employee to take time off from work.
- Modifying an employee’s work schedule to adjust arrival and departure times, shift duration or breaks.
How Can Employees Request These Accommodations?
A disabled employee should make a request for a reasonable accommodation to their employer, explaining what they need in order to do their job. The request does not need to be in writing. To identify the appropriate accommodation, the employer and employee must engage in an interactive process.
What If An Employer Does Not Provide Accommodations?
Employers are allowed to deny requests for reasonable accommodations if the request is not reasonable or if it will cause undue hardship. However, your employer should still work with you to explore other accommodation options. An employer may also require you to provide additional information about the limitations or restrictions that the accommodation is intended to address.
New Jersey, New York State and New York City Human Rights laws also have broad protections for employees. Under city law, an employer’s failure to engage in the “interactive process” with a disabled employee may be deemed a failure to accommodate, in and of itself.
Contact Fisher | Taubenfeld LLP
As a worker in New York or New Jersey, you deserve to have the accommodations you need to support your work and protect your career. We can help. Send an email or call our office at 646-741-3490 to schedule a free and confidential phone consultation.