ADA

Tammy

When an employee returned from a medical leave, her Dr. note stated that she shas to work a reduced work day due to her medical health condition. This is against employee's wishes. Because the request for a reduced day came from a Physician and not the employee, is it still considered reasonable accomodation in spite of employee refusing to be accomodated? If not accomodated, what are the risks the organization is taking?

bsa

Is this employee disabled? A reduced workday sounds like intermittent FMLA, which can be a reasonable accommodation if the person is disabled. Reasonable accommodation is whatever is "reasonable" to you the employer and your employee. Determining reasonableness involves dialogue between both parties. I would document conversations with her and maybe have an appropriate witness (someone who needs to know - like her supervisor or yours). I believe I would also ask her to consult with her doctor again regarding his recommendation.

Down_the_Middle

On the surface this sounds more like FMLA than ADA, but I'll assume you have enough facts to differentiate. My suggested approach would be to explain to the employee that her wish to RTW differs from the physician and you'd like clarification on this discrepancy. It'll be awkward to schedule this person for reduced work hours when they wish to work fulltime, so either the MD amends his/her RTW statement, or you schedule the employee according to her wish. I would be very reluctant to schedule the employee less hours becuz of the MD's statement and ignore what the employee requests. I think the solution is to chat with the employee and get her and the MD on the same page with RTW restrictions.