Nixon-Tinkelman v. New York City Department of Health & Mental Hygiene, Second Circuit, No. 10-cv-3317, August 10, 2011

Nixon-Tinkelman v. New York City Department of Health & Mental Hygiene, Second Circuit, No. 10-cv-3317, August 10, 2011

Decision: An employer's duty to provide reasonable accommodations can extend to issues that affect the employees ability to commute to and from work.

The Second Circuit Court of Appeals has joined the First, Third, and Ninth Circuits in finding that the obligation to reasonably accommodate an employee with a disability can include the commute to and from work. Employers need not provide a car and driver, but must consider options to lessen commuting burdens. In this case, the employee was temporarily reassigned to another location in New York City and requested assistance commuting because of her medical conditions.

The appeals court found this reasonable, and even suggested options such as transferring her to a facility closer to her home, or allowing her to work from home. Other circuit court cases involved the employee’s inability to drive after dark, where courts found that an employer could grant an accommodation for an earlier shift to ease a commuting burden.

The Second Circuit includes the states of Connecticut, New York, and Vermont.