What?!? The 10th Circuit just found that a request for a new supervisor is a “reasonable accommodation” under the ADA?
Interesting new ADA case out of the federal Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit--Herrmann v. Salt Lake City Corp. (https://www.ca10.uscourts.gov/sites/ca10/files/opinions/010110621392.pdf)
Although I'm an employer-side employment lawyer through and through, my friends at Disability Law Center (https://disabilitylawcenter.org) obtained this hard-fought victory and I'm happy for them and their client.
Congrats to DLC lawyers Laura Henrie, MaryAnne Davies, and Katherine Bushman for this big victory! And congrats to DLC’s Executive Director, Adina Zahradnikova, for her amazing leadership of this important organization!
I do have a bit of a bone to pick with SHRM though, for the headline of this article: “Court Allows Accommodation Claim for Better ‘Supervisory Fit’ to Proceed” (https://www.shrm.org/ResourcesAndTools/legal-and-compliance/employment-law/Pages/Court-Report-better-supervisory-fit-sought.aspx?utm_source=marketo&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=editorial~Workplace%20Compliance~NL_2022-02-25_Workplace%20Compliance&linktext=Court-Allows-Accommodation-Claim-for-Better-Supervisory-Fit-to-Proceed&mktoid=117226509&mkt_tok=ODIzLVRXUy05ODQAAAGC0Q-AzEopTuX3yO_g3PXX6nsMrJdik1lYklDEg9PHzcC5eLoMBjD75P6NWgVkgjuwgXEH0Tfpn40LSzPI1pGlmKffnfpSUq3UHoP1BfyfOIR0zj4)
The article title would have you believe that the employer’s summary judgment motion was defeated (at least in part) by arguing that a request for a different supervisor was a reasonable accommodation under the ADA. If you read the opinion, however, that's not what the court decided. Which is nice, because it’s well-established law in the 10th Circuit (where I am in Utah) and elsewhere that a request for a different supervisor is not a reasonable accommodation. So, good job, 10th Circuit; not so great job SHRM.
Even the EEOC agrees that a request for a new supervisor is not a reasonable accommodation. See Q&A #33 from the EEOC’s Enforcement Guidance on Reasonable Accommodation and Undue Hardship under the ADA (https://www.eeoc.gov/laws/guidance/enforcement-guidance-reasonable-accommodation-and-undue-hardship-under-ada#other) (Spoiler alert: Here’s how it starts: “Does an employer have to change a person's supervisor as a form of reasonable accommodation? No.”)
I'm not going to say that a request for a different supervisor could never be considered a reasonable accommodation under the ADA; but if not never, pretty darn close.