Jim Garrity has just filed suit on behalf of a state government employee who suffers from a severe chronic pain condition that makes commuting (and simply moving around a workplace) extraordinarily difficult and often impossible.
The case raises a question that is both legally significant and, frankly, hard to answer with a straight face: if an employer has already proven that an accommodation works, for nearly a year, without a single complaint, how can it simply take it away?
The Facts
Our client is employed by a state agency. Following foot surgery in late 2023, she was diagnosed with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome, a chronic neurological condition sometimes called one of the most painful known to medicine. Even short drives cause severe pain. Walking to and from a parking lot is often not manageable.
Beginning in January 2024, the agency’s HR division determined that telework was a reasonable ADA accommodation and approved it repeatedly, in writing, multiple times over the following nine months. Her supervisor reported that she was performing approximately 98% of her job duties from home, doing a “wonderful job,” with “zero issues.” The agency’s own documentation confirmed she could perform essentially all essential functions remotely using only a standard laptop.
Then, once her physicians confirmed that her condition is permanent and she sought a long-term telework arrangement, the agency abruptly reversed course. It revoked telework with less than one day’s notice – the same day she had undergone a medical procedure – and directed her to return to the office the next morning or use personal leave.
When she later formally requested renewed telework, the agency denied it on the remarkable grounds that because she had been forcing herself to commute on her better days, she had “demonstrated” she could do her job in person, and therefore was not entitled to any accommodation at all.
She has since been losing hundreds of dollars per paycheck due to forced unpaid leave on days when her pain makes the commute physically impossible.
Why This Case Matters
The ADA does not require an employee to prove that a commute is impossible on every single day. It does not punish employees for their resilience. And it does not allow an employer to use an employee’s own determination against her, concluding that because she endures the pain when she must, no accommodation is required.
The law requires employers to provide reasonable accommodations that remove barriers to equal employment. When the employer has already proven, with its own documentation, that telework does exactly that, at minimal cost and with no operational disruption, the refusal to continue it demands serious scrutiny.
Garrity said, “We can’t get this case to a jury fast enough. This employer is about to learn a hard lesson about taking the rights of disabled employees seriously.”
Have you been refused a simple and reasonable accommodation at work? Call us at 800-663-7999 for an extended consultation directly with Jim Garrity.
Categories: Accommodations, ADA Retaliation, Disability Accommodations, Disability Discrimination, Retaliation, Uncategorized
Jim Garrity, Esq. - Employee Rights Lawyer 
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