In Romanello v. Intesa Sanpaolo, S.p.A.,1 the New York Court of Appeals adopted the broad reading of an employer’s duty to accommodate a disabled employee under the New York City Human Rights Law (City HRL), as initially set forth by a lower court in Phillips v. City of N.Y.2 The court acknowledged that the standards for a plaintiff to prove, and a defendant to defeat, a claim of disability discrimination are different under the City HRL from those set forth under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the New York State Human Rights Law (State HRL). Indeed, the court found that under the City HRL, there is no requested accommodation that is per se unreasonable, including a request for indefinite leave. Finally, the court held that the burden of proving that a requested accommodation would pose an undue hardship rests squarely on the employer.
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