Mental-Health Aide Loses Wrongful Firing Claim

(CN) - A New York appellate division upheld the firing of an injured mental-health aide, saying she was no longer qualified to do the job.

Tina Gill worked as a developmental aide for the Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities (OMRDD). She was hurt in 1998 while restraining a patient.

She lost her job one year later, as the OMRDD did not make a disability accommodation for her. She sued for disability discrimination.

The trial court ruled in favor of the OMRDD on the grounds that Gill did not establish that she could perform the job or that a reasonable accommodation existed.

Judge Malone upheld the decision on appeal.

"The written job description of a developmental aide required that an aide be able to 'lift and move bedridden or other incapacitated individuals' and ... use approved physical intervention techniques.'"

"It is clear," Malone added, "that both functions are essential to the job of developmental aide and that plaintiff cannot perform them."

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