The following article was submitted by Brody and Associates, LLC. It is posted here with permission.

As employers continue to implement return-to-office policies and because remote work has become so commonplace, employers are continuously facing employee requests to work remotely as a disability accommodation.

The Americans with Disabilities Act requires covered employers to provide reasonable accommodations to qualified employees with disabilities, unless doing so would impose an undue hardship.

But the ADA does not require employers to provide the employee’s preferred accommodation, nor does it require an employer to eliminate an essential job function.

Those distinctions have become especially important in the post-pandemic workplace.

During the pandemic, many employers temporarily permitted employees to work from home, including in roles historically performed exclusively on site.

Employees now frequently argue that those temporary arrangements prove the job can be performed remotely.

Courts and agencies, however, continue to recognize that temporary pandemic-era flexibility does not necessarily rewrite a position’s essential functions.

Fifth Circuit’s Decision: Hayes v. GStek

In May 2026, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit addressed this issue in Hayes v. GStek, Inc.

The plaintiff, an IT systems administrator for an Army contractor, was permitted to telework temporarily during the pandemic.

When the Army and the contractor transitioned away from...

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