The Court narrowly reversed the lower court ruling, finding that a bona fide seniority system generally need not be disrupted to provide a reasonable accommodation to a qualified employee under the ADA.
The Ninth Circuit had ruled that companies must engage in an interactive process when determining an employee's qualification for a reasonable accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act. In this case, a disabled employee received a transfer to an easier job in the mail room, but was bumped from that job when two other employees with greater seniority applied for jobs there. The Supreme Court decided that the ADA does not require an employer to reassign a disabled employee to a different position as a "reasonable accommodation" where another employee was entitled to hold the position under the employer's bona fide and established seniority system. Decided 4/29/02.