HRM 546 Week 3 Development, Accommodation and Leave Example

The Pharmacist Who Will Not Dispense, the Pregnant Stocker and the Twelve Weeks: Accommodation and Leave Law at Keystone Fresh Markets

[Student Name]

University of Phoenix

HRM/546: Human Resource Law

Week 3 Assignment

[Instructor Name]

[Date]

Keystone Fresh Markets and all employee situations are composites written for a model paper; laws are summarized generally and should be confirmed with counsel.

Keystone Fresh Markets, the composite grocery and pharmacy chain with 38 stores in Pennsylvania and Ohio, received three requests in one month. A pharmacist in Erie asked not to dispense emergency contraception because of her religious beliefs. A stocker in Youngstown, five months pregnant, brought a note limiting her to lifting 20 pounds. A deli worker in Pittsburgh asked for time off to care for his father after a stroke. Each store manager handled the request differently, and one denied the stocker's request outright. Accommodation and leave law asks employers to make individual decisions, and individual decisions made without a process are where the legal exposure lies. This paper analyzes each case and recommends a process.

The Interactive Process

The ADA and the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act expect the employer and employee to engage in an interactive process: understanding the limitation, exploring options and choosing an effective accommodation (Walsh, 2023). The employer need not grant the employee's preferred option if another is effective. Courts often find employers liable not because no accommodation existed but because the employer stopped talking. Documentation of each step is the employer's best evidence of good faith.

Case One: The Pharmacist's Religious Objection

Title VII requires an employer to accommodate an employee's sincere religious belief or practice unless doing so causes undue hardship. For decades, courts read that as anything more than a minimal cost. In 2023, the Supreme Court held that undue hardship requires substantial increased costs in relation to the conduct of the business and that coworker dislike of an accommodation, or of religion itself, is not a hardship. Keystone's Erie pharmacy has two pharmacists on most shifts, so another pharmacist can fill the prescriptions she declines, with a process ensuring that customers are served promptly and not lectured.

Limits on the Pharmacist's Accommodation

The accommodation has limits. When she works alone, as on some evening shifts, there may be no one else to fill the prescription, and leaving a customer without a lawful medication raises patient care and state pharmacy board concerns. Keystone may schedule her with another pharmacist, arrange transfer to a nearby store or decline to accommodate solo shifts if the cost of alternatives would be substantial. The analysis is specific to the store and its staffing.

Case Two: The Pregnant Stocker

The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, effective June 27, 2023, obliges every covered employer, meaning one with at least 15 workers, to accommodate known limitations related to pregnancy, childbirth or related conditions, using the ADA's undue hardship standard. Unlike the ADA, it covers an employee who cannot perform an essential function temporarily, if she will be able to resume it in the near term and the function can be set aside for now. The stocker's lifting limit qualifies.

Accommodating the Stocker

Options include assigning her to stock lighter items, providing a cart or lift assist, pairing her with a coworker for heavy cases or moving her temporarily to cashier or online order picking. The Youngstown manager's denial, on the ground that light duty was only for workers injured on the job, is the kind of policy that has drawn claims. Forcing her onto leave is not an option while some other accommodation would keep her on the job.

Case Three: The Deli Worker's Leave

The FMLA lets an eligible employee take as much as 12 workweeks off without pay, with the job held open, when a parent has a serious health condition. The deli worker has worked at Keystone for three years and averaged 30 hours a week, more than 1,250 hours, and his Pittsburgh store has more than 50 Keystone employees within 75 miles. He is eligible. Leave may be taken in a block or intermittently, and his health insurance must continue on the same terms.

FMLA Administration

Keystone must give notice of eligibility and rights within five business days of learning of the need, may request medical certification and must designate the leave as FMLA leave. The audit found that stores often granted time off informally without designating it, which means it may not count against the 12 weeks. HR will centralize designation.

Paid Sick Leave Overlap

Because his store is in Pittsburgh, the deli worker also accrues paid sick time under the city's ordinance, which can be used to care for a family member. Keystone may allow paid sick time to run alongside FMLA leave so that some of his absence is paid, provided the city ordinance's notice and use rules are followed.

When Laws Overlap

One employee can be covered by several laws at once. A worker hurt in a fall may be on workers' compensation, FMLA leave and an ADA accommodation track at the same time. Each law has different rules on medical information, return to work and job restoration. HR will track all three together.

Research on Accommodation

Schur et al. (2014) studied accommodations in eight companies and found that employees with and without disabilities requested similar kinds of accommodations, most at low cost, and that coworkers and supervisors generally viewed accommodations positively when the process was fair. The finding supports treating accommodation as routine management rather than an exception.

Paid Family Leave Evidence

Although Pennsylvania and Ohio have no paid family leave program, evidence from other states informs policy. Rossin-Slater et al. (2013) found that California's paid family leave program roughly doubled mothers' average leave-taking and increased their usual weekly hours of work a year later. Keystone will consider a modest paid parental leave benefit for retention.

Fair Access to Development

Antidiscrimination law also covers training and promotion. The audit found that selection for Keystone's assistant manager training program relied on store manager nominations, and nominees were 82 percent men in a workforce that is 58 percent women. Arthur et al. (2003) found that well-designed training produces meaningful gains, so access to it matters. Keystone will add open applications and posted criteria.

Returning to Work

The cases do not end when leave begins. When the deli worker returns, the FMLA requires restoration to the same or an equivalent job with equivalent pay, benefits and schedule, and the audit found that some stores filled returning workers' preferred shifts in their absence, which can amount to interference. When the stocker gives birth, her recovery and any lactation needs raise new accommodation questions, since federal law also requires reasonable break time and a shielded, non-restroom room where she can pump. Keystone will add a return-to-work checklist so managers restore schedules and plan these needs before the employee comes back.

A Central Accommodation Team

Keystone will create a small accommodation and leave team in HR to receive all requests, run the interactive process, coordinate laws and document decisions. Store managers will be trained to recognize requests, which need not use legal words, and to forward them within one day.

Conclusion

The three cases show three standards: substantial cost for religious accommodation after 2023, undue hardship and temporary suspension of essential functions under the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act and job-protected leave under the FMLA. A central team, an interactive process, centralized designation and fair access to development reduce Keystone's legal risk and treat employees consistently across stores.

References

Arthur, W., Jr., Bennett, W., Jr., Edens, P. S., & Bell, S. T. (2003). Effectiveness of training in organizations: A meta-analysis of design and evaluation features. Journal of Applied Psychology, 88(2), 234-245. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.88.2.234

Rossin-Slater, M., Ruhm, C. J., & Waldfogel, J. (2013). The effects of California's paid family leave program on mothers' leave-taking and subsequent labor market outcomes. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 32(2), 224-245. https://doi.org/10.1002/pam.21676

Schur, L., Nishii, L., Adya, M., Kruse, D., Bruyère, S. M., & Blanck, P. (2014). Accommodating employees with and without disabilities. Human Resource Management, 53(4), 593-621. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.21607

Walsh, D. J. (2023). Employment law for human resource practice (7th ed.). Cengage.