Woof! Employer must accommodate disabled woman’s service dog
Just how far does an employer need to go in accommodating a disabled employee’s service animal?
Pretty far, says the Montana Supreme Court.
One of Janelle McDonald’s best pals is Bess, an Australian Shepherd.
Bess is a trained service dog that helped Janelle navigate through life’s obstacles. Because of a leg injury, Janelle needed Bess for bracing support when she walked.
And in what is becoming an increasingly common function for service animals, Bess helped Janelle cope with mental health issues like depression and dissociative episodes.
Janelle’s former employer, the Montana Department of Environmental Quality, was pretty understanding, allowing Bess to stay with Janelle in the office during the work day.
However, a problem arose when it became apparent that Bess was having difficulty walking on the buffed tiled surfaces in some office hallways.
Bess actually slipped and fell a number of times, on occasion sustaining injuries that required veterinary care. Janelle ultimately decided that it was necessary to retire Bess from her service functions, and Janelle suffered accordingly.
Janelle later left the Department for another job and filed a complaint for disability discrimination.
The Department contended it had no duty to accommodate her service animal.
The Montana Supreme Court saw it otherwise, concluding that Janelle was a “qualified employee who needed and was entitled to a reasonable accommodation so that she could use her service animal effectively in the workplace. Her requested accommodation of nonskid floor coverings in the ground-floor hallways and the areas outside the first- and second-floor elevator doors was not beyond the scope of [the Department’s] duty under [the state’s disability discrimination law].”
On remand, Janelle will still need to show specifically that her requested accommodations were “reasonable.” (McDonald v. Montana Department of Environmental Quality)
— Pat Murphy
patrick.murphy@lawyersusaonline.com
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