Last time, we revisited the Americans With Disabilities Act and what constitutes a disability. In a recent case, the ADA issue related to the circumstances when an employer can terminate an employee with a known disability.
A mail carrier for the U.S. Postal Service was given a key that opened every customer mailbox on her route. Mail carriers were required to keep the key attached to their clothing by a chain at all times while on duty and to turn the key in daily at the completion of work.
One day, the employee did not hear her key drop while on her mail route.
She didn't hear the key drop because of her profound hearing loss, a fact she had noted on her employment application. A co-worker subsequently informed their supervisor that the employee has lost her key and that he had lent her his key to finish her route. A customer discovered the key two days later.
When the supervisor interviewed the employee about the incident, she admitted she lost the key and that she had not attached it to her clothing while she was delivering the mail. As a result of her admission, the supervisor immediately terminated the employee.
Did the employer violate the ADA? Did it terminate the employee because of her hearing impairment? Did it have an obligation to reasonably accommodate the employee's disability? The court correctly answered "no" in each instance.
The employee was terminated for the violation of a critical work rule: each carrier had to attach the key to her clothing and make sure it wasn't lost. The employee's failure to attach it to her clothing was not related to her hearing disability.
There was no reasonable accommodation that was required. The employee's hearing disability may have prevented her form hearing the key hit the ground.
But this was after the work rule had already been violated. There was no request to provide a reasonable accommodation to permit an employee to realize that she had not performed an essential function of her job.
Opinions are solely the writer's. James Jorgensen practices law at Hoeppner Wagner & Evans in Valparaiso.
