Employee refusing to perform job duties.

[storagespokane]

Washington State
I have an employee who complains of joint issues with his ankles, knees and back. He was not injured on the job and has never specifically said that he is disabled, just says how much he aches and hurts all the time. His job is primarily physical and requires constant standing, lifting, and physical labor. He understood this was a physical job when hired and is now refusing to perform most of his job duties complaining that his back can't handle it and he's in too much pain. His job duties are falling behind (such as using a leaf blower, a rake, cleaning and sweeping/mopping, all of which he says his back hurts too badly to perform) and he is my only employee for this position all but five days a week. What can I do? I have made reasonable accommodations like buying him a rolling stool so he can sit during some of his tasks and I have delegated most of his job to my part time fill in groundskeeper and to myself (which is not fair to either of us because we both already have jobs to do).

 

[cbg]

Let's be clear, because this is critical to your options and I want to make absolutely certain that I'm understanding correctly.

He has never self-identified as disabled; never provided any medical documentation that stated he could not perform his duties; never requested an accommodation?

 

[storagespokane]

He has never identified as disabled and has not provided any sort of documentation. He has only said that "my back hurts too much to do..." or "I can't do this task because I have flat feet". He has said "I tweaked my back" several times and asked to go home early, which I allowed but when I tried to get him to fill out an incident report and go to the urgent care to file an L&I claim his response has been "Oh, there's nothing the doctors can do for this and I just need to go home and lie down with a hot pad". The only accommodation he has asked for is the rolling shop stool so he can sit while performing tasks such as cleaning vacant units or wiping down unit doors. I have asked him if he needs a back brace/belt to help his back but he has refused that as well. I've resorted to simply delegating away any work that he complains is too hard for him to do. If he is unable to perform the essential functions of the job, do I have grounds to terminate or do I have to find a way to lessen the responsibilities of his position to accommodate him?

 

[LdiJ]

He has never identified as disabled and has not provided any sort of documentation. He has only said that "my back hurts too much to do..." or "I can't do this task because I have flat feet". He has said "I tweaked my back" several times and asked to go home early, which I allowed but when I tried to get him to fill out an incident report and go to the urgent care to file an L&I claim his response has been "Oh, there's nothing the doctors can do for this and I just need to go home and lie down with a hot pad". The only accommodation he has asked for is the rolling shop stool so he can sit while performing tasks such as cleaning vacant units or wiping down unit doors. I have asked him if he needs a back brace/belt to help his back but he has refused that as well. I've resorted to simply delegating away any work that he complains is too hard for him to do. If he is unable to perform the essential functions of the job, do I have grounds to terminate or do I have to find a way to lessen the responsibilities of his position to accommodate him?

If he cannot do the job that he was hired to do, then you have every right to fire him. However, you might want to just lay him off in order to allow him to save some face. If he was employed long enough its likely that he is eligible for unemployment anyway, either way.

 

[cbg]

Since he has not yet invoked the ADA, self-identified as disabled or asked for an accommodation, you are not under any obligation to modify his duties or provide any accommodations. You are free to tell him, No, when he asks to be relieved from his duties or say No when he asks for a change of hours, duties, or equipment.

However, the minute he mentions the ADA or claims disability, the rules change. When and if that happens, get back here immediately, okay? This is a very tight line you're walking. No fault of yours; just the way this kind of thing works.