We blogged in February about two Seventh Circuit cases pending before the Supreme Court that would have given the Court the opportunity to provide guidance as to whether, and if so to what extent, the ADA requires employers to provide disabled employees who have exhausted their FMLA and other employer-provided leave with additional leave as a reasonable accommodation. The Supreme Court recently denied review in both of those cases, so the issue will continue to percolate in the lower courts. What does this mean for employers? Given the unsettled state of the law, and as further explained in our prior blog, employers should continue to evaluate disabled employees’ requests for additional leave on a case-by-case basis. The length of the leave request, whether the employee’s doctor can provide a reasonably certain return date, and the impact of the request on coworkers and operations are all relevant considerations.
