Hartford Business Journal

16 HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | JULY 22, 2024 FOCUS | WORKPLACE Daniel Schwartz, a partner at Hartford law firm Shipman & Goodwin, said every employer should have a remote-work policy that is enforced. HBJ PHOTO | STEVE LASCHEVER Reasonable accommodation or unfair expectation? Employers grapple with hybrid work policies as employees test limits full-time remote work as a reasonable accommodation is still being tested. Belval's suit, filed in New Haven federal court, claims Electric Boat violated the Americans with Disabil- ities Act (ADA) by engaging in disability discrimination and failing to provide a reasonable accommoda- tion, in addition to disability discrimi- nation in violation of the Connecticut Fair Employment Practices Act. The suit, which is in the discovery phase, says Electric Boat's failure to accommodate Belval's disability caused him to suffer harm, including lost wages and benefits, along with pain, suffering and emotional distress. He is seeking reinstatement to his job, seniority and salary, along with awards for economic losses, compensatory damages, and attor- ney's fees and costs. Neither Electric Boat nor its parent company, General Dynamics, responded to a request for comment. In Electric Boat's answer to the complaint, the company said Belval was approved to work remotely three days a week and on-site two days a week. It also said he was required to report to the Occupation Health Center by Aug. 21, 2023, or "it would regard him as having resigned his position." The company denies many of Belval's other allegations, including that its actions were discriminatory or in violation of the ADA. Belval is represented by Hart- ford civil rights attorney Peter Goselin, who did not respond to multiple inquiries from the Hartford Business Journal. The suit boils down to whether remote work is a reasonable accom- By Andrew Larson alarson@hartfordbusiness.com Z acchery Belval, 31, suffers from multiple serious health conditions and has been deemed disabled. He has a complex congenital heart defect, an impaired circulatory system and severe anxiety that requires medication and counseling. Belval, of Enfield, often experi- ences severe fatigue and is at a high risk of life-threatening infections, including COVID-19 variants, among other issues. Yet, Belval was able to work, until recently. During the peak of the pandemic in 2020, his employer, Groton-based shipbuilder Electric Boat, began allowing many employees, including Belval, to work remotely. His office job, which consisted mainly of editing documents submitted by engineers, was condu- cive to remote work. When Belval's manager ordered him to return to the office, he continued working from home and, on Oct. 12, 2021, took leave under the Family Medical Leave Act based on a letter from his doctor, who said Belval should not physically return to work in order to avoid contracting COVID-19. Electric Boat offered to allow him to work from home "one or two days a week," which his medical team considered insufficient because it would have placed Belval at "substantial risk." After repeatedly requesting a reasonable accommodation that would enable him to work remotely full-time, and providing updated infor- mation from his medical providers, he was ordered to report to Electric Boat's Occupational Health Center by Aug. 21, 2023. He didn't return and was terminated. Last October, Belval filed a federal lawsuit against Electric Boat over the firing. The description of his medical conditions and allegations involved in the case were pulled from court records. Four years after the pandemic made remote work more palatable to employers, many companies are still grappling with how to balance workers' desire for flexibility with employers' needs, including moni- toring worker productivity. According to the latest data from Gallup's hybrid work indicator, among U.S. work locations with remote-ca- pable jobs, 27% of employees are exclusively remote, 54% are hybrid and 20% are exclusively on-site. Daniel Schwartz, a partner at Hartford-based law firm Shipman & Goodwin who focuses on employ- ment litigation, said many employers have created hybrid work policies, but the amount of flexibility afforded varies by industry. "I think there are some employers that don't really care where their employees are working, as long as the work gets done," Schwartz said. "And others say it's more important for our culture to be in the office more frequently. But it's really hard to generalize, because we're just not seeing consistency across the board." One thing Schwartz can say for certain, however, is that every employer should have a remote-work policy that it can enforce. "Having a policy that isn't being followed doesn't do anyone any favors, so have a consistent approach and then enforce it to the extent that you can," Schwartz said. "And if you have a policy that says that you need to be in the office, and no one follows it, then it's not worth the paper it's written on." Is remote work reasonable? Enforcing policies means that some employers, like Electric Boat, have had to let employees go. But the legality of an employer's denial of

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