The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) generally requires employers to provide reasonable accommodations to disabled employees. But how reasonable is an accommodation request when granting it would violate the employer’s seniority system? A sharply divided Supreme Court recently held in US Airways, Inc. v. Barnett that the ADA ordinarily does not require an employer to violate its seniority system as a means of accommodating a disabled employee.
The Supreme Court’s Decision in US Airways, Inc. v. Barnett
In the Barnett case, an employee who had injured his back while working as a cargo handler transferred to a less demanding mailroom job pursuant to a seniority system that the employer had unilaterally maintained for decades. Under that system, positions were periodically opened to seniority-based employee bidding. Two years after bidding into the mailroom position, the employee discovered that his job was again subject to the bidding process and learned that more senior
