Request for ADA Accommodation at time of RIF No Help to Employee
02/03/06
Recently the federal court of appeals in Chicago threw out Nicole Saladino's
case for disability discrimination, despite the timing of her leave, and
request for accommodation, with the decision to let her go. She was one of
ten to be cut and the Seventh Circuit ruled that the ADA "does not require
that an employer accommodate a disabled employee to the detriment of other
senior employees if the disabled employee is released under a
non-discriminatory, seniority based layoff policy."
Saladino v Envirovac, Inc. No 04-3897.
To the court all Saladino had going for her was timing. A
victim of anxiety disorder and seizures, she had been out for several weeks
when her job was eliminated, and she was notified of her lay-off the day
after she sought to return to work from her medical leave and work half-days
only. She also presented evidence that she was not on the original RIF list
but showed up on a second one that was created after she asked for half-days
upon her return.
"A 'telling temporal sequence' may support a causal
connection between a disability and an adverse employment action" the court
reasoned, "but it 'is not a magical formula which results in the finding of
a discriminatory cause' without other circumstantial evidence." Saladino
failed to submit that extra quantum of evidence. Hence bad timing will
probably not create exposure for an employer, but "bad timing plus" - such
as a comment about the disability, or inconsistent application of the
lay-off criteria for who goes and who stays - will.
