Does the ADA Require Employers to Give Drivers to Blind Pharmaceutical Reps?

The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals is currently considering an appeal of a case involving whether a legally blind Pfizer sales representative must be provided a driver as an ADA accommodation.  The case involves a long-time Pharm-Rep for Pfizer whose job was to travel to physician offices to make sales visits.  The sales territory was large parts of North Carolina that lacked public transportation.  After the sales representative became legally blind and could no longer drive, she asked Pfizer to hire a full-time driver to take her to physician offices as an ADA accommodation.  Pfizer denied the request.

The subsequent ADA lawsuit was dismissed by the federal court judge overseeing the case.  The plaintiff appealed to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals arguing that while traveling was an essential function of the employee's job, actually driving was not.  Therefore, a driver would have been a reasonable accommodation for that job function.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, National Federation of Independent Businesses, and Equal Employment Advisory Council filed an Amicus brief (a brief filed by interested parties who are not technically part of the lawsuit).  The Amicus brief argued that providing a driver would not be a reasonable accommodation and would represent and undue hardship to the employer.  Requiring a driver for a sales person would have far reaching consequences according to the brief.

The Amicus brief was filed in the wake of briefs filed by the EEOC and National Employment Lawyers Association (NELA) that argued that the employee should have been given a driver.  The briefs compared the case to providing an interpreter for a deaf employee, which is required as an accommodation.

The case remains pending.  In the meantime, to avoid such word games from Plaintiff attorneys, employers should specify that both traveling and driving are essential functions of the job for outside sales personnel.