Alerts

Citibank Employee Obligated to Propose Reasonable Accomodation

April 5, 2006

On March 16, 2006, the Appellate Division, First Department of the New York Supreme Court dismissed a lawsuit filed by a "client financial analyst" who claimed that her anxiety and depression prevented her from performing one of the key functions of her job — interacting with clients. In Pimentel v. Citibank, the panel held that the plaintiff had not met her burden of proposing a reasonable accommodation and that her request for reassignment to an alternative position not involving customer contact was unreasonable. In so holding, the panel emphasized that the federal and state disability statutes envisage an interactive process in arriving at a reasonable accommodation for a disabled employee.