Fourth Circuit: ADA Does Not Require Employers Create Job-Sharing Positions As A Disability Accommodation

Squire Patton Boggs Summer Associate Sydney Finley summarizes a recent opinion from the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit addressing an employers' obligation to provide job-sharing as a reasonable accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit—which covers Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia – clarified in an opinion issued on June 8, 2021, that the Americans with Disabilities Act ("ADA") does not require employers to create an entirely new position to accommodate an employee's disability. More specifically, the Court held that a new, part-time job-sharing position that requires managerial approval to create is not a reasonable accommodation because the ADA does not require companies to create new positions to accommodate their employees with disabilities.