3.16.050 Employment of Persons with Disabilities Policy.
No qualified disabled person shall, on the basis of disability, be excluded from participation, denied the benefits of, or otherwise subjected to unlawful discrimination under any program or activity administered by the County. The County shall reasonably accommodate the employment of qualified disabled persons and promote equal opportunity for the disabled. Employment policies concerning, but not limited to, hiring, classification, compensation, promotion, demotion, transfer, layoff, discipline and termination shall be administered equally for disabled and non-disabled employees.
A. Reasonable Accommodation. Pierce County will reasonably accommodate the known physical, sensory and mental disabilities of any employee or otherwise qualified applicant for employment. Reasonable accommodation may include making County facilities accessible to disabled persons, job restructuring, job transfer, modified work schedules, equipment or devices, provision of readers or interpreters, or reassignment to a vacant position for which the person is qualified.
An accommodation is not considered reasonable if it would impose undue hardship on the County. Judgments concerning the reasonableness of providing an accommodation shall be made by the County on a case by case basis. It is the County's responsibility to determine if a proposed accommodation is effective and reasonable.
B. Transfer/Rehire as Reasonable Accommodation. Employees who become unable to perform the essential functions of their position with or without reasonable accommodation shall not be considered qualified for the position and shall be transferred to a vacant non-promotional position which they are able to perform with or without reasonable accommodation, provided such a position is available and the employee is otherwise qualified. Such transfers will be made without regard to the branch of government in which the employee was formerly employed. The initial competitive hiring shall be deemed to satisfy such Career Service requirements. Transfers into Civil Service positions in the Sheriff's Department may only be made in accordance with the provisions of Chapter 41.14 RCW.
A new probationary period must be satisfactorily served. If a probationary employee was never qualified to satisfactorily perform the essential functions of their current position, with or without reasonable accommodation, they are not eligible to transfer to a vacant position.
If there is no vacant position for which the disabled employee is qualified at the time they become unable to perform the essential functions of the current position, the employee shall be separated from their current position and placed on a re-employment register for upcoming vacant positions for which the employee is otherwise qualified and expresses interest. The employee must cooperate in the rehire process. The employee shall remain on this list for a period of one year or until an offer of employment for a vacant position is made, whichever occurs first. Once an employee is offered an alternative position, the County's obligation to provide this form of reasonable accommodation ends, whether or not the employee accepts the new position.