Seventh Circuit holds employers may, at least in some circumstances, be required to accommodate a disabled worker’s commuting needs

In a very fact-specific opinion that will likely prove challenging to apply to future fact patterns, the EEOC argued and a 3-judge panel of the Seventh Circuit held that employers may, at least in some circumstances, be required to reasonably accommodate a disabled worker’s commuting needs. The decision is titled EEOC v. Charter Communications LLC.

The plaintiff had a vision disability related to cataracts in both eyes that limited his ability to drive at night. He worked in a call center and asked to have his work schedule moved up by a couple hours, from noon-9:00 PM to 10:00 AM-7:00 PM, so that he could commute during daylight hours while he tried to find a solution. Specifically, the court noted that the company had suggested to him that he needed to find alternative transportation, specifically public transportation or carpooling with fellow employees. The company agreed to move his schedule up by two hours as requested but only on a temporary 30-day basis during which time he was to research public transportation and carpooling. According to the court, neither option panned out. When he checked on the former, he was told public transportation ended at 9:00 PM, making it not an option if he were to go back to the original schedule, and as for the latter, he said he knew of no fellow workers who lived in the city where he did, which was a 1-hour drive from the workplace. He asked the company for a list of workers who lived by him, so that he could ask them if they would carpool with him, but the company refused to tell him any saying it would be a breach of confidentiality. He then asked for another 30-day extension so he could move closer to the workplace; the company refused the extension, according to the court.

The court held that the company would have to explain its refusal to a jury. In the court’s view, the company had asserted that attendance as scheduled was an essential function; therefore, in the court’s view, the plaintiff wasn’t asking for an accommodation to suit his own personal needs or preferences but rather to help him meet an essential function of the job.

Kimmons was not asking for an unaccountable, work-when-able schedule or a permanent accommodation. He did not demand the company itself transport him to work. He asked only for a temporary work schedule that would start and end two hours earlier while he found time to move closer. A jury could have found his requested accommodation to be reasonable.

As even the Seventh Circuit acknowledged in this decision, its opinion is at odds with a number of other decisions, including one by the Tenth Circuit. The case is therefore ripe for review by the full Seventh Circuit and even the Supreme Court.