How to terminate
Needtoknow
8 Posts
We have an employee who suffered a back injury (slight) not work related about 1 year ago. Recently, she was traveling to the airport for Company travel when her cab hit a vehicle in front of hers. The cab was traveling about 5-10 mph and she was not wearing a seat belt (yes we do have seat belts in cabs in MD). She claimed a reinjury of her back, went to her original doctor and received a note saying that she was restricted from traveling until September 1st. I should mention that this employee has listed in her essential functions, that travel is about 70% of the job. However, we will abide by the restriction but she has just told her supervisor that even though the travel restriction is expected to be lifted come September 1st, she doesn't feel comfortable traveling as much. This employee has also said she has a difficult time concentrating lately, presumedly because of medication. Here's the dilemma....we have had to incur greater financial expenses to cover the travel she was to do in her normal course of work by hiring outside consultants and asking existing staff to take on additional burden. The supervisor is not altogether please with the individual's performance on a whole, has indicated that she complains most times about something or another which prevents her from doing some or most parts of her job. The supervisor has asked what we can do - between the lines, she wants to know if we can terminate this employee after the restriction is lifted and if the employee says they can't travel because of their own uncomfortableness. I asked the supervisor if there was a "desk job" in the department and the answer is no. There are no openings in other departments of the company for which the employee would be qualified. So the bottom line of all this rhetoric is, can we legally terminate this employee if she refuses to travel after the travel restriction is lifted? Or....if she gets her doctor to extend the restriction again (she's done that twice), can we terminate for being unable to fulfill the essential functions of the job? I know this might be a sticky issue even for an at-will employment due to the medical issues. Any suggestions, thoughts, etc. would be appreciated.
Comments
Do you have job descriptions? Remember, ADA only protects from discrimination who is a "qualified individual with a disability." Or, one who, with or without reasonable accommodation, can perform the essential job functions. An impairment is usually considered in its medicated or corrected state when determining if it's a disability under the ADA.
If she is cleared to travel, but "just doesn't feel like it" and it is an essential job function and you have no "desk job" with which to accomodate her if she isn't cleared; I'd think you would be okay to discipline for not performing her job.
Maybe some of our other sage Forumites have a different opinion? I never claim to be an expert.