EEOC Requirements On Reassignment

In its Enforcement Guidance on ''Reasonable Accommodations and Undue Hardship under the Americans with Disabilities Act,'' the EEOC has stated explicitly that reassignment is a reasonable accommodation for which disabled employees should have priority: The ADA requires employers to provide reasonable accommodations to individuals with disabilities, including reassignment, even though they are not available to others. Therefore, an employer who does not normally transfer employees would still have to reassign an employee with a disability, unless it could show that the reassignment caused an undue hardship. And, if an employer has a policy prohibiting transfers, it would have to modify that policy in order to reassign an employee with a disability, unless it could show undue hardship. According to the EEOC, ''the employee does not need to be the best qualified for the position in order to obtain it as a reassignment.'' All that is required is that the employee be ''qualified'' for the position, which may be satisfied if the employee (1) has the requisite skill, experience, education and other job-related requirements of the position, and (2) can perform the essential functions of the new position, with or without reasonable accommodation.