Virus Mental-Health Issues Expose Legal Gray Area Over Leave

The EEOC has acknowledged that workers with pre-existing mental-health conditions might have more trouble adjusting to work during the pandemic. Employers are required to field all mental-health accommodation requests as they come in, and might have to wade into an “unsettled” area of law if leave is the requested accommodation.

Qualified Disabilities: Employees must ask for an accommodation for a mental-health condition, but not all conditions will rise to the level of a disability, management attorneys said. But good employers will try to find an accommodation even if that might be the case.

Unsettled Area: If an employee requests leave, ...