The requirement of regular attendance at the workplace may go down the toilet–so to speak–as a result of a federal appeals court ruling today in the case of a Ford Motor Company employee who suffers from irritable bowel syndrome.
Positions that require a great deal work of teamwork are not inherently unsuitable to telecommuting arrangements, the Sixth Circuit said, reinstating the EEOC’s ADA lawsuit against the car company brought on the employee’s behalf.
Ford fired the employee from her job as a resale steel buyer after denying her request to be allowed to work from home four days a week as an accommodation for her IBS. The company argued that it was justified in firing her because she couldn’t satisfy the job’s attendance requirements.
What’s interesting about the case is that the Sixth Circuit had previously ruled, as have most U.S. appeals courts, that regular attendance generally is an essential job function.
But in a 2-1 ruling, the court’s majority said that the world has changed since those earlier opinions, and teleconferencing technologies unconceived of two decades are now commonplace. All the ruling means for now is that the EEOC gets to go to trial in the case.
But if the EEOC prevails on the merits, it could have ripple effects on telecommuting policies generally, causing employers to rein in them in so that employees don’t think they have a “blank check” to request work from home regardless of their jobs.
The case is EEOC v. Ford Motor Co., No. 12-2484.
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