Learn the best action for an HR manager to take when an employee threatens a lawsuit over a rejected accommodation request that may impact workplace safety.
Table of Contents
Question
An HR manager meets with the area supervisor and an employee who has limited head mobility due to a work-related injury to discuss potential accommodations. The employee suggests building steps at one of the workstations in an assembly line so the employee does not have to look upward.
After considering other workers’ traffic patterns, everyone except the employee concludes adding stairs will introduce a tripping hazard and decrease the safety of other workers. The employee threatens to file a lawsuit claiming the company did not adequately explore the employee’s suggested accommodation.
Which action should the HR manager take to reduce the likelihood that the employee will file a lawsuit?
A. Place stairs on the assembly line temporarily so the worker can see the danger they pose to other workers.
B. Obtain a professional safety engineering analysis of the impact and feasibility of building the steps.
C. Ask other workers whether they think the steps will be a hazard before concluding the review.
D. Allow the employee to use the stairs under the condition that they will be removed if other employees complained about them.
Answer
The best action for the HR manager to take in this situation to reduce the likelihood of the employee filing a lawsuit is:
B. Obtain a professional safety engineering analysis of the impact and feasibility of building the steps.
Explanation
When an employee requests an accommodation, employers are required under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) to engage in an interactive process to determine if the requested accommodation is reasonable and feasible. This involves carefully considering the employee’s request.
However, employers do not have to provide accommodations that would pose an undue hardship, which includes accommodations that would compromise workplace safety. Building steps on the assembly line appears likely to create a tripping hazard that puts other employees at risk.
To thoroughly explore the accommodation request and protect the company in case of a lawsuit, the HR manager’s best course of action is to obtain an objective, professional safety engineering analysis. This shows a good-faith effort to fully consider the employee’s request. It provides documented evidence from an expert third-party that the proposed accommodation is unsafe and infeasible.
The other options are less advisable:
A) A temporary trial could put employees at unnecessary risk
C) While employee input can be valuable, a professional assessment is needed
D) Conditional implementation leaves safety to chance and may be seen as insincere
In summary, option B, getting a professional safety analysis, is the most prudent step for the HR manager. It demonstrates the company took the accommodation request seriously while providing strong justification if the accommodation is denied. This reduces legal risk by showing the denial was based on objective safety criteria rather than discrimination.
Situational judgment items require the examinee to think about what is occurring in the scenario and decide which response option identifies the most effective course of action. Other response options may be something you could do to respond to the situation, but SJIs require thinking and action based on the best of the available options. Do not base your answer on your organization’s approach to handling the situation, but rather, answer based on what you know should be done according to best practice. Panels of SHRM-certified subject matter experts rate the effectiveness of each response option, and the “best” answer is derived by statistical analysis of those expert opinions.
SHRM Senior Certified Professional (SHRM-SCP) certification exam practice question and answer (Q&A) dump with detail explanation and reference available free, helpful to pass the SHRM-SCP exam and earn SHRM-SCP certification.