The employee is unable to request an accommodation. The ADA does require the employee to meet job qualifications and that the reassignment will not cause undue hardship. Basic requirements regarding reassignment to a funded, vacant position and that the position be essentially equal to the previous position, will probably not change. The ADA has no such restrictions. We also need to consider the implications of the Civil Rights Act of 1991 in terms of the potential for compensatory damages, which may be awarded for lack of efforts to accommodate.
Statutes take precedence over regulation.
Reassignment provisions now in effect in the Federal sector are those with the more generous ADA interpretation rather than the more restrictive provisions found in the Rehabilitation Act. To read the Council's position paper regarding this matter, members should refer to the Council Web site, Publications Directory, Reassige.98 subdirectory. There were several further comments regarding increased activity on the part of some bargaining units in the complaints process. Ms. Miaskoff stated that representatives from EEOC and the FLRA were planning to meet to jointly discuss potential issues. FLRA and complaints.