If you need a service or emotional support animal to work, your NJ employer should try to reasonably accommodate you, but there is a lot of fine print along with that. The closer you are to a traditional service animal situation (someone is blind and uses a service dog) the better your chances. The more you’re pushing the traditional envelope, the greater the likelihood your employer may legally refuse your request.

Service animals have gotten into the news, mostly due to airline passengers wanting one animal or another with them during their flight. Most famously, a woman tried to get on a United flight out of Newark with her emotional support peacock. She purchased a seat for it, but the airline said no, for many reasons, including its size.

As an employee, if you have nothing to lose you can bring all the support you want. An employee of a New Zealand advertising agency, Joshua Jack, was scheduled for a meeting where he believed he was going to be promoted or fired. He paid $200 for an emotional support clown to help lighten things up. He ended up losing his job, but gained two balloon animals (a unicorn and a poodle), reports the Washington Post.

New Jersey’s Law Against Discrimination (NJLAD) states it’s illegal to discriminate against an employee with a service or guide dog. Under the federal Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the NJ equivalent statute, covered employers need to reasonably accommodate their disabled employee, which could include the use of service animals.

There’s a difference between a service animal and a guide animal, the second of which is trained to perform specific functions for someone with physical and psychological disabilities. An emotional support animal is one that helps a person cope with emotional stress. Strictly speaking the NJLAD makes no mention of emotional support animals and the Employment Law Section of the American Bar Association doesn’t define these categories.

The accommodation must be necessary to help the employee perform the essential functions of the job. It’s an easier argument that someone who’s visually impaired needs a trained dog to help the person get from place to place than that a person who’s stressed out needs to be accompanied by a support goat or sheep. But the devil is in the details, including the severity of the stress the person feels, whether there’s a disability causing it, and medical documentation establishing the need to be in the animal’s company.

The parties need to discuss the issue in good faith, be flexible, and try to meet each other’s needs. The employee must show the proposed accommodation is reasonable and the employer should accept an effective accommodation that doesn’t create an undue hardship.

An employer could have legitimate concerns about having animals in the workplace. The animal needs to be well behaved, under control, and not cause distractions in the workplace. If the workplace is very noisy or potentially hazardous to the animal’s safety, they may be valid reasons the requested accommodation isn’t reasonable.

There are employers who are very pet friendly. They may invite employees to bring well-behaved, sociable animals to work. If that’s the case, it would be hard for the employer to turn down a request for a service, guide, or emotional support animal.

The issue of workplace accommodations for a disability are fact-based and the facts change in every situation, so there are few hard and fast rules. If this is an issue for you, contact our office so the employment attorneys for workers at Kingston Law Group can discuss the situation with you. We can be reached at 609-683-7400, or contact us online to set up a near-term reduced fee initial consultation at our Central Jersey location in Kingston.  We will listen to your facts, explain the law, and recommend your best pathways to monetary and social justice.  Call today. You will be glad you did.