Most accommodation cases start with an employee asking to stay home.
This one features the rare unicorn: a disabled worker who fought for the right to come in.
TL;DR: A disabled IRS employee sued under the Rehabilitation Act after the agency required telework during COVID and turned down his request for indefinite leave until the office reopened. The Eleventh Circuit upheld summary judgment for the IRS because he failed to challenge both reasons the lower court gave for dismissing the case: (1) he never explained how his medical conditions required leave, and (2) open-ended leave is not a reasonable accommodation.
He didn’t want to work from home
When the pandemic hit in 2020, the IRS told employees who could work remotely to do it. After a week at home, one long-time agent, a Navy veteran with a 90-percent disability rating, said he could not keep teleworking.
He said his house was too crowded while his kids were learning at home. He worried about storing government documents safely and said working from home might worsen his health. If he could not work in the office, he wanted leave “until the post of duty is open and available.”
The IRS let him use his regular annual and sick leave, then said no to more. When he still refused to telework, the agency marked him absent without leave until offices reopened.
The court’s decision — and the rare unicorn twist
Both courts sided with the IRS. The Rehabilitation Act, like the ADA, did not require the agency to grant indefinite leave. The employee never showed how his disability made telework impossible or in-office work essential, and asking for open-ended time off was not reasonable under either law.
That made this case a true unicorn. Most accommodation claims involve employees who want to stay home. Here, the employee fought to come in. The lesson is the same either way: the law requires what is reasonable, not what an employee prefers. Indefinite leave still fails that test, even when the worker wants to work in person.
What employers can learn
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Put the reason for your policy in writing. If you require remote or in-person work, be clear about why.
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Know when to say no. A request with no return date goes beyond what the law requires.
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Focus on the job’s essential duties. The goal of an accommodation is to help the employee do the job, not avoid it.
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Stay consistent. Reasonableness depends on facts, not preferences.
The bottom line
Unicorns may be rare, but the rule stays the same.
Whether an employee wants to stay home or come in, reasonable still means reasonable.