Reading Room Document

Whether a Collective Bargaining Agreement May Require that the United States Postal Service Apply Seniority Rules to Vacant Positions Notwithstanding Requests by Disabled Employees for Reasonable Accommodations under the Rehabilitation Act

The opinion concludes that the USPS will not violate the Rehabitiliation Act of 1973 by following its collective bargaining agreement with the American Postal Workers Union, which requires all assignments to vacant positions to comport with the seniority rules outlined in the agreement, even when a less senior employee has requested the position as a reasonable accommodation for a disability under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. The OLC does not provide release dates for its opinions, so the release date listed is the date on which the opinion was authored. The original opinion is available at https://justice.gov/olc/page/file/936266/download.

March 19, 2012