Maxine Neuhauser, Member of the Firm in the Labor and Employment and Health Care and Life Sciences practices, and Jiri Janko, Associate in the Labor and Employment practice, in the firm’s Newark office, authored an article in New Jersey Lawyer, titled “Reasonable Accommodation Under the LAD.”

Following is an excerpt (see below for a PDF of the full article):

Determining whether an accommodation imposes an undue hardship requires a case-by-case analysis that takes into account numerous factors. These factors include: the size of the employer’s workforce, facilities and budget; the type of the employer’s operations (including the composition and structure of the employer’s workforce); the nature and cost of the accommodation required; and the extent to which accommodation would involve waiver of an essential requirement of a job. Thus, employers should also engage in an internal interactive process, which may need to include various stakeholders, including human resources, management, supervisors, and, also, conceivably, a union, if the workforce is organized.

The regulations implementing the LAD, and, now the statute itself, provide examples of accommodations an employer might be required to provide. These include making facilities used by employees readily accessible and usable by people with disabilities, job restructuring (including part-time or modified work schedules), acquisition or modification of equipment or devices; job reassignment, bathroom breaks, periodic rest, and temporary transfers to less strenuous or less hazardous work. The lists are intended to be illustrative, not exhaustive. Moreover, the examples are not per se reasonable; in other words, employees are not automatically entitled to one or more of the specifically enumerated accommodations. If the accommodation will create an undue hardship on the employer, it need not be provided.

Resources

Neuhauser-Janko-Reasonable-Accommodation-Under-the-LAD.pdf

Jump to Page

Privacy Preference Center

When you visit any website, it may store or retrieve information on your browser, mostly in the form of cookies. This information might be about you, your preferences or your device and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to. The information does not usually directly identify you, but it can give you a more personalized web experience. Because we respect your right to privacy, you can choose not to allow some types of cookies. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings. However, blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable information.

Performance Cookies

These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not know when you have visited our site, and will not be able to monitor its performance.