Does the ADA prohibit an employer from creating a light duty position for an employee when s/he is injured on the job?

Does the ADA prohibit an employer from creating a light duty position for an employee when s/he is injured on the job? No, in most instances. An employer may recognize a special obligation arising out of the employment relationship to create a light duty position for an employee when s/he has been injured while performing work for the employer and, as a consequence, is unable to perform his/her regular job duties. Such a policy, on its face, does not treat an individual with a disability less favorably than an individual without a disability; nor does it screen out an individual on the basis of disability. Of course, an employer must apply its policy of creating a light duty position for an employee when s/he is occupationally injured on a non-discriminatory basis. In other words, an employer may not use disability as a reason to refuse to create a light duty position when an employee is occupationally injured. An employer need not create a light duty position for a non-occupationally injured employee with a disability as a reasonable accommodation. The principle that the ADA does not require employers to create positions as a form of reasonable accommodation applies equally to the creation of light duty positions. However, an employer must provide other forms of reasonable accommodation required under the ADA. For example, subject to undue hardship, an employer must: (1) restructure a position by redistributing marginal functions which an individual cannot perform because of a disability, (2) provide modified scheduling (including part time work), or (3) reassign a non- occupationally injured employee with a disability to an equivalent existing vacancy for which s/he is qualified. Accordingly, an employer may not avoid its obligation to accommodate an individual with a disability simply by asserting that the disability did not derive from an occupational injury. In some cases, the only effective reasonable accommodation available for an individual with a disability may be similar or equivalent to a light duty position. The employer would have to provide that reasonable accommodation unless the employer can demonstrate that doing so would impose an undue hardship.