Courts Expand California Employer Obligations to Disabled Workers

Two recent court decisions expand the scope of the employer duty to provide reasonable accommodations to disabled employees under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and its California state law counterpart, the Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA). On July 6, 2006, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals expanded the scope of positions that must be considered in evaluating reassignment of the employee as a reasonable accommodation under the ADA. In another recent decision, the California Court of Appeal clarified that the duty to accommodate applies to those non-disabled employees whom the employer “regards as” disabled. The two decisions, read together, require California employers to continue to be diligent in engaging in the interactive process and accommodation of disabled and potentially disabled employees.