Employer may be required to provide temporary accommodation to disabled employee even if the the employee can’t perform all of the essential functions of their position.

The plaintiff, a female police officer, brought a claim against her employer under the New Jersey Pregnant Workers Fairness Act. Specifically, she alleged that her employer failed to reasonably accommodate her request for a change of duty toward the end of her pregnancy. The employer argued that the requested accommodation was per se unreasonable since it would not allow the employee to perform the essential functions of her position. In a published opinion, the Appellate Division concluded that, on a temporary basis, an accommodation could be considered reasonable even if it doesn’t allow the employee the ability to perform all of the essential functions of the job.

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