Cal. Code Regs. tit. 2 § 11068 : Administration — Department of Fair Employment and Housing — Fair Employment and Housing Council — Discrimination in Employment — Disability Discrimination — Reasonable Accommodation

(a) Affirmative Duty. An employer or other covered entity has an affirmative duty to make reasonable accommodation(s) for the disability of any individual applicant or employee if the employer or other covered entity knows of the disability, unless the employer or other covered entity can demonstrate, after engaging in the interactive process, that the accommodation would impose an undue hardship.
(b) No elimination of essential job function required. Where a quality or quantity standard is an essential job function, an employer or other covered entity is not required to lower such a standard as an accommodation, but may need to accommodate an employee with a disability to enable him or her to meet its standards for quality and quantity.
(c) Paid or unpaid leaves of absence. When the employee cannot presently perform the essential functions of the job, or otherwise needs time away from the job for treatment and recovery, holding a job open for an employee on a leave of absence or extending a leave provided by the CFRA, the FMLA, other leave laws, or an employer's leave plan may be a reasonable accommodation provided that the leave is likely to be effective in allowing the employee to return to work at the end of the leave, with or without further reasonable accommodation, and does not create an undue hardship for the employer. When an employee can work with a reasonable accommodation other than a leave of absence, an employer may not require that the employee take a leave of absence. An employer, however, is not required to provide an indefinite leave of absence as a reasonable accommodation.
(d) Reassignment to a vacant position.
(1) As a reasonable accommodation, an employer or other covered entity shall ascertain through the interactive process suitable alternate, vacant positions and offer an employee such positions, for which the employee is qualified, under the following circumstances:
(A) if the employee can no longer perform the essential functions of his or her own position even with accommodation; or
(B) if accommodation of the essential functions of an employee's own position creates an undue hardship; or
(C) if both the employer and the employee agree that a reassignment is preferable to being provided an accommodation in the present position; or
(D) if an employee requests reassignment to gain access to medical treatment for his or her disabling condition(s) not easily accessible at the current location.
(2) No comparable positions. If there are no funded, vacant comparable positions for which the individual is qualified with or without reasonable accommodation, an employer or other covered entity may reassign an individual to a lower graded or lower paid position.
(3) Reassignment to a temporary position. Although reassignment to a temporary position is not considered a reasonable accommodation under these regulations, an employer or other covered entity may offer, and an employee may choose to accept or reject, a temporary assignment during the interactive process.
(4) The employer or other covered entity is not required to create a new position to accommodate an employee with a disability to a greater extent than an employer would offer a new position to any employee, regardless of disability.
(5) The employee with a disability is entitled to preferential consideration of reassignment to a vacant position over other applicants and existing employees. However, ordinarily, an employer or other covered entity is not required to accommodate an employee by ignoring its bona fide seniority system, absent a showing that special circumstances warrant a finding that the requested accommodation is reasonable on the particular facts, such as where the employer or other covered entity reserves the right to modify its seniority system or the established employer or other covered entity practice is to allow variations to its seniority system.
(e) Any and all reasonable accommodations. An employer or other covered entity is required to consider any and all reasonable accommodations of which it is aware or that are brought to its attention by the applicant or employee, except ones that create an undue hardship. The employer or other covered entity shall consider the preference of the applicant or employee to be accommodated, but has the right to select and implement an accommodation that is effective for both the employee and the employer or other covered entity.
(f) An employer shall not require a qualified individual with a disability to accept an accommodation and shall not retaliate against an employee for refusing an accommodation. However, the employer or other covered entity may inform the individual that refusing an accommodation may render the individual unable to perform the essential functions of the current position.
(g) Reasonable Accommodation for the Residual Effects of a Disability. An individual with a record of a disability may be entitled, absent undue hardship, to a reasonable accommodation if needed and related to the residual effects of the disability. For example, an employee may need a leave or a schedule change to permit him or her to attend follow-up or monitoring appointments with a health care provider.
(h) Accessibility Standards. To comply with section 11065(p)(2)(A), of this article, the design, construction or alteration of premises shall be in conformance with the standards set forth by the Division of the State Architect in the State Building Code, Title 24, pursuant to Chapter 7, Division 5 of Title 1 of the Government Code (commencing with Government Code section 4450), and Part 5.5 of Division 13 of the Health and Safety Code (commencing with Health and Safety Code section 19955).
(i) An employer or other covered entity shall assess individually an employee's ability to perform the essential functions of the employee's job either with or without reasonable accommodation. In the absence of an individualized assessment, an employer or other covered entity shall not impose a "100 percent healed" or "fully healed" policy before the employee can return to work after an illness or injury.
(j) It is a permissible defense to a claim alleging a failure to provide reasonable accommodation for an employer or other covered entity to prove that providing accommodation to an applicant or employee with a disability would have created an undue hardship.
(k) It is unlawful to discriminate or retaliate against a person for requesting reasonable accommodation based on mental or physical disability, regardless of whether the employer granted the request.

Cal. Code Regs. Tit. 2, § 11068

Note: Authority cited: Section 12935(a), Government Code. Reference: Sections 12920, 12921, 12926, 12926.1 and 12940, Government Code.

1. Change without regulatory effect renumbering former section 7293.9 to new section 11068 and amending section filed 10-3-2013 pursuant to section 100, title 1, California Code of Regulations (Register 2013, No. 40).
2. Amendment of subsection (e) and new subsection (k) filed 12-9-2015; operative 4/1/2016 (Register 2015, No. 50).