Regular Attendance as an Essential Function

Overview
Regular and predictable attendance may be an essential function of a job, but it is not automatically an essential function of every position. Whether attendance—or in-person attendance at a specific worksite—is essential depends on the actual duties of the position, the way the city operates, and the facts of the individual accommodation request. The city should evaluate each situation individually.

When attendance may be essential
Regular and predictable attendance is more likely to be an essential function when the position requires on-site public service, direct supervision, teamwork, shift coverage, face-to-face interaction, operation of equipment, emergency response, field work, or other duties that cannot be performed effectively from another location or at another time.

Examples may include police, fire, dispatch, public works, utilities, inspections, equipment operators, front-counter positions, and jobs with regular in-person responsibility for supervision or public service. The city should avoid treating any job category as automatically requiring full-time, in-person attendance without considering the actual work duties and established operational practices.

Case-by-case analysis
When an employee requests leave, intermittent leave, a modified schedule, telework, or another attendance-related accommodation, the city should review the actual position and the employee’s work restrictions. Relevant considerations may include:

• The essential functions that require the employee’s presence, timing, or predictable availability.
• Whether work can be performed remotely, at a different time, or through a modified schedule without eliminating an essential function.
• The expected duration, frequency, and predictability of the requested absence.
• Whether the employee is expected to return and resume essential functions with or without accommodation.
• The operational effect on public services, staffing, safety, deadlines, shift coverage, and other employees.
• Whether temporary coverage, overtime, reassignment, cross-training, or another accommodation is feasible.
• Whether the requested accommodation would cause undue hardship.

There is no fixed amount of leave that is always reasonable or always an undue hardship. A finite, medically supported period of leave may be a reasonable accommodation under the ADA, even after other leave is exhausted. The city is not ordinarily required to provide indefinite leave with no reasonably anticipated return-to-work date.

Use caution
Including “regular attendance” in a job description is helpful evidence of the city’s judgment about essential job functions, but it is not conclusive. The city should ensure that job descriptions accurately identify why regular attendance, a specific schedule, or physical presence is essential to the particular position.

A city should not use an attendance policy, maximum-leave rule, or job-description statement as an automatic basis to deny protected leave or accommodation. Depending on the facts, the city may need to consider intermittent leave, a modified schedule, temporary telework, a temporary reassignment of marginal duties, or finite additional leave under the ADA, FMLA, PWFA, city policy, or another applicable law.