11th Circuit Court of Appeals Holds that an Employee Must Provide Documentation Showing How an Accommodation will Help the Employee
Posted on December 29, 2022
Important takeaways: For an employee to show an accommodation for a disability is reasonable, the employee must identify their disability and suggest how the accommodation will help them overcome their physical or mental limitations.
Facts: In July 2018, Nicole Owens had a c-section childbirth and told her employer, the Georgia Governor’s Office of Student Achievement (GOSA) that she would need to work remotely for several months. Owens gave GOSA notes from two physicians that mentioned the c-section and concluded that Owens may need to work remotely until November 2018. The physician’s notes did not indicate any medical conditions or medical necessity for working remotely. Owens told GOSA that she needed to work remotely because of childbirth-related complications but gave no detail about the complications or how working remotely would accommodate them. GOSA asked Owens to provide additional documentation about her condition and requested accommodation or return to in-person work. Deadlines to provide this additional documentation had been extended two times. Owen did not provide the additional paperwork or return to the office in person by the final deadline of October 11, 2018 and GOSA terminated her employment.
Owens sued GOSA for failure to accommodate in violation of the Rehabilitation Act, retaliation in violation of the Rehabilitation Act, and pregnancy discrimination under the Pregnancy Discrimination Act. The district court dismissed all three claims and found that Owens failed to establish a prima facie case of failure to accommodate because she never notified GOSA of her disability or connected that disability with her requested accommodation. Owens also failed to establish that GOSA’s reasons for terminating her were a pretext for discrimination.
The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with the lower district court. The Court held that the initial burden to establish an accommodation is reasonably requiring the employee to give the employer notice of the disability and provide enough information to allow the employer to understand how the accommodation they request would assist them. The Court held that an employee can meet their obligation to demonstrate that an accommodation is reasonable by identifying their disability and suggesting how the accommodation will help the employee overcome their physical or mental limitations. Owens did not identify a disability, her physical or mental limitations caused by a disability, or give GOSA information about how working remotely would accommodate the disability. The Court also held there was a lack of evidence that GOSA’s reasons for terminating Owens were a pretext for discrimination.
What this means: In this part of the country, in order to show a requested accommodation is reasonable, an employee must identify their disability and suggest how the accommodation will help the employee overcome their physical or mental limitations. An accommodation is not reasonable if no documentation shows how the accommodation will help the employee.
What is the name of the case and where you can read it: Owens v. State of Georgia, November 9, 2022, Read it here.
As you consider these and other issues, we recommend you speak with your school lawyer or contact Bea, Megan, Beth, and Kevin by email or at 406-542-1300 to discuss these issues.
