employer's responsibility?

clarkbar

Employee has requested an accommodation for a "cooling vest" to be purchased by us so he can wear it during the sumemr. Due to his condition he will not be able to withstand the heat in the plant. The plant is not air conditioned however we do provide fans. Should this be something the employer should provide or would it be something the employee should pursue on his own under durable medical equipment through the health insurance plan? I could see us accommodating him with special tools but a piece of personal clothing for him to wear doesn't sound like something we should provide. Am I wrong?

Hatchetman

Is the employee disabled under ADA or a similar Ohio law?

Fiorstly, you are right that under ADA personal devices and equipment that would be used both on the job and off the job are not considerd reasonable accommodations under ADA. The device has to be job related in that it specifically assists the indivdiual in performing the duties of a partcular job. Providing a device which is primarily for the personal benefit of the disabled emplyee is not requred under ADA according to EEOC.

But if the device is required to meet job-related demands, then most likely it would not be considered "personal."

In your situation, I assume, for the sake of this response, the emplyee does have an ADA disability that causes him to "overheat" in the work arena. But then if that is the casse, other emplyees would be issued this vest. Since you don't say that they are, then I assume the vest is not needed to do the job.

But the "overheating" issue still reamins as a result of the assumed underlying disability. In that case, you would need to evaluate or determine what if any reasonable accommodations are available that would allow the employee to perform the essential duties of the job. It doesn't have to be a "coolng vest."

Any accommodation that is effective could be used. That is part of what the interactive process is set up to determine. While an emplyer should take into account the employee's wishes, an emplyer is not required to provide just what the employee wants.

Other acommodations could include re-arranging the work schedule, taking more breaks, re-structuring the way the job is done so that the heat issue is significantly reduced or eliminated, and re-assigning the employee to another vacant similar position to which he is qualified that doesn't involve a heat issue.

One other consideration is that while you may not be required to provide a coolng vest, you may be required to allow the employee to provide his own (assuming there is no safety issue and again assuming there is an underlying disability that impacts the employee as you state and that all other accommodations turn out to be ineffective or not reasoanable.)

Don D

If I'm way off base, tell me so; but, is this guy perhaps 170 pounds overweight and hardly able to move about with his fellow employees?

mushroomHR

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 04-05-04 AT 07:13AM (CST)[/font][br][br]Hatchetman--thanks for your most thorough enlightening response. Don D--this employee is not overweight but he said his doctor told the employee that he will not be able to withstand the heat this summer in our plant so the employee will need this vest. I am going to recommend to my supervisor when we get the papers back that we contact counsel.

Don D

Sounds like a trumped up accommodation request to me. How many people do you have in the plant? Plan on budgeting for 75% of that number to request the vests.

clarkbar

OK, let's say the company does provide the vest for this person. What do we say to other employees who question this person's use of this vest? We can't tell other employees about this particular employee's condition, so what would you recommend we tell other employees who may want one of these vests too?