Do employers have to adjust my schedule during cancer treatment?

Often, yes. A "modified work schedule or shift change" is on the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's own published list of reasonable accommodations for employees with cancer. But the duty has limits, and it does not reach every employer.

Which employers the ADA covers

Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act covers private employers with 15 or more employees. It also covers state and local government employers. Section 501 of the Rehabilitation Act gives similar protection in federal jobs.

That leaves a gap at small businesses. EEOC points to the fix: most states have their own laws against disability discrimination at work. Some of those state laws reach smaller employers, and some give more protection than the ADA does.

What "reasonable accommodation" means in practice

EEOC defines it as an adjustment or change at work. The point is equal job opportunity. The employer must provide it unless doing so is an undue hardship. Undue hardship means significant difficulty or expense.

EEOC says an accommodation must be provided when it is needed because of the cancer itself, the side effects of treatment or medication, or both.

Here is the published list:

• Leave for doctors' appointments, or to get or recover from treatment.
• Periodic breaks, or a private area to rest or take medication.
• A modified work schedule or shift change.
• Permission to work at home.
• A change to office temperature.
• Permission to use a work phone to call doctors, where personal calls are normally barred.
• Shifting minor tasks to another employee.
• Reassignment to a vacant job when the current one is no longer possible.

EEOC's own example is close to this question. An engineer needs radiation every weekday morning for eight weeks. He asks to change his start time or his hours. EEOC says the employer should consider a flexible schedule, such as a later start or part-time work.

FMLA is a separate law with different math

The Family and Medical Leave Act is not the ADA, and the rules are not the same.

Federal regulation says FMLA gives eligible employees of a covered employer up to 12 workweeks of leave in any 12 months. The leave is unpaid but the job is protected. Paid leave already earned can be used instead.

Who qualifies is strict and countable. An employee must have worked for that employer for at least 12 months. They must have worked at least 1,250 hours in the 12 months before the leave starts. And the work site must have 50 or more of the employer's staff within 75 miles.

FMLA leave need not be taken in one block. Rules allow intermittent leave, taken in separate stretches. They also allow a reduced leave schedule, which cuts weekly or daily hours. Either one requires a medical need for it.

How the request is made

EEOC is blunt about this: there are no "magic words." A person simply has to tell the employer that they need a change at work because of the cancer. The request can also come from a family member, a friend, or a health professional.

An employer may ask for paperwork. But only enough to show the condition exists and to explain why the change is needed. EEOC says asking for an entire medical record would be improper.

A hospital social worker can turn a treatment calendar into a written request. Our guide to workplace accommodations during cancer treatment covers what to put in it, and the piece on working during cancer treatment covers the day-to-day side.

EEOC issued this guidance on May 15, 2013, and lists no later revision.

Sources

• https://www.eeoc.gov/laws/guidance/cancer-workplace-and-ada
• https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CFR-2024-title29-vol3/xml/CFR-2024-title29-vol3-sec825-100.xml
• https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CFR-2024-title29-vol3/xml/CFR-2024-title29-vol3-sec825-110.xml
• https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CFR-2024-title29-vol3/xml/CFR-2024-title29-vol3-sec825-202.xml