As mentioned in a previous blog Federal Agencies need to go to quite an extent to take care of their disabled federal employees who need accommodation. One of the first cases I handled many years back involved a Center Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) employee who suffered from a debilitating medical condition that required him to stay out of direct sunlight as much as possible.
My client worked in a brand new office building that was leased by CMS that had numerous natural light windows. My client was suffering immensely from the light. After conversing with his doctors he decided to request a reasonable accommodation of a low sunlight environment. The only problem was that none existed in his building and there were no other buildings in the Atlanta area where he could be transferred.
After a year of complaining and requesting accommodation, he sought out an attorney for assistance. Ultimately the Agency built him an internal office from scratch which caused CMS to pay over $10,000. Along the way we filed a discrimination case. We were ultimately successful in showing that the Agency failed to accommodate him in a timely fashion. He won his case and we recovered full attorney’s fees and he got his office!
If you are a Federal Employee in need of a Reasonable Accommodation for your Medical Condition, please reach out to one of our attorneys at Pines Federal Employment Attorneys. Good cases like this can often lead to full recovery of your attorney’s fees!