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An employee who became a quadriplegic in a car accident is entitled to accommodation and reinstatement to her job at a Wisconsin cheese factory because she is able to do most of the functions of her position. The Labor and Industry Review Commission (LIRC) found that Crystal Lake Cheese Factory had discriminated against Susan Catlin by refusing to modify her job duties and make physical modifications to the workplace to accommodate her disabilities. This decision was affirmed by the Wisconsin Court of Appeals.
Susan Catlin worked for Crystal Lake Cheese Factory as Department Head in the wholesale department. Her primary duties required her to process incoming orders for product which included assembling and labeling boxes and weighing, pricing and boxing cheese. The other three positions in the wholesale department included: cheese cutter, cryovacer (packager), and labeler. Crystal Lake cross-trained its employees in all departmental positions and required them to assist each other as necessary if the volume of work so required.
Approximately a year after she began working for Crystal Lake, Catlin was involved in an automobile accident which left her a quadriplegic. The company president told her that her job would be available "no matter what." After almost one year of treatment, recovery and rehabilitation, she contacted Crystal Lake to make arrangements to return to work. Her calls were not returned. Instead, Crystal Lake hired an independent consultant to evaluate the wholesale department at Crystal Lake and determine whether an individual in a wheelchair could perform Catlin's job. The consultant concluded that Catlin would not be able to perform all of the job functions of the four positions in the wholesale department, a requirement at Crystal Lake. Catlin was terminated and she subsequently filed suit under the WFEA.
The WFEA statute (Wisconsin Statute Section 111.34(1)(b)) provides:
(1) Employment discrimination because of disability includes, but is not limited to:
(b) Refusing to reasonably accommodate an employee's or prospective employee's disability unless the employer can demonstrate that the accommodation would pose a hardship on the employer's program, enterprise or business.
At the hearing before LIRC, Crystal Lake argued that an employee must be able to perform all job-related functions required by a position. LIRC interpreted the statute as meaning that "as long as an employee can perform some of the job responsibilities, modification of the duties may be a reasonable accommodation," as long as the modification does not cause the employer undue hardship.
In an October 8, 2002 opinion, the Wisconsin Court of Appeals held that because the WFEA "does not indicate whether an individual's disability must be related to his or her ability to undertake 'some,' 'most,' or 'all' of the job-related responsibilities," the statute is left open to many differing interpretations. The Court accepted LIRC's interpretation and found that Crystal Lake should be able to accommodate Catlin by reassigning some of the job duties she was unable to perform. "We see no reason why the help Catlin would need with some tasks would be any different from another worker requiring assistance when production became backed up or the worker needed to step out for a moment."
The court acknowledged that modifications necessary to accommodate Catlin might be costly, but Crystal Lake presented no evidence of such hardship when it initially presented its case and the court was unwilling to remand the case to give the company a second opportunity to do so. For Wisconsin employers, the results of this decision require that absent a showing of hardship, a disabled employee who can perform "some or most," of the duties of the job, must be provided reasonable accommodation. This decision emphasizes the need for employers to document specific business reasons demonstrating hardship when denying a requested accommodation. Unfortunately, there is very little guidance for Wisconsin employers as to what "some or most" of the duties of the job encompasses, leaving it up to future litigation to further define these ambiguous terms.
For more information regarding reasonable accommodation, training programs and publications, please call (414) 423-1330 or e-mail Krukowski & Costello's educational services department.
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