The United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit recently ruled, in EEOC v. United Airlines, Inc., that the Americans with Disabilities Act ("ADA") does not require employers to reassign disabled employees, who will lose their positions due to a disability, to vacant positions for which they are qualified if better qualified candidates apply and it is the employer's "consistent and honest" policy to hire the best qualified applicant. This decision was in keeping with prior Seventh Circuit precedent. However, this issue has split the federal appeals courts, with the Tenth and District of Columbia Circuits holding that the ADA requires reassignment, and the Eighth Circuit agreeing with the Seventh Circuit.
The EEOC argued that a 2002 decision by the Supreme Court of the United States, US Airways, Inc. v. Barnett, undercut the Seventh and Eighth Circuit holdings. In Barnett, the Supreme Court ruled that a reassignment which would provide a preference to a disabled employee in violation of a seniority system did not automatically make the accommodation unreasonable provided the employee could show special circumstances which nonetheless justified the accommodation. The Supreme Court indicated that preferences would sometimes be necessary to comply with the ADA, but vacated and remanded the case because the lower courts had not required the employee to demonstrate special circumstances justifying the reassignment. Although the Seventh Circuit in United Airlines found no conflict with Barnett, the panel recommended en banc consideration of the case by all the judges of the Circuit Court to consider the EEOC's arguments.
This decision should serve as a reminder for employers to carefully consider the propriety of reasonable accommodations for disabled workers in light of the specific facts at hand.
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