The Law: Pets in the workplace

National Take Your Dog to Work Day is June 21. Pet Sitters International created the day to encourage employers to allow dogs in the workplace for one Friday each year to celebrate dogs.

Many employers are revising their employee handbooks to implement an even more expansive pet-friendly policy in the workplace, mostly involving dogs.

Companies such as Amazon and PetSmart allow their employees to bring their dogs to work. At Amazon, more than 10,000 dogs are apparently registered to come to work. Employees who want to bring their dogs to the office must register their dogs with the program and are given a badge that allows the pets access to designated buildings.

Service animals

Pets are different from service animals.

“Service animals” are defined as animals that are individually trained to do work or perform tasks for people with disabilities. Examples of such work or tasks include guiding people who are blind, alerting people who are deaf, or pulling a wheelchair.

The work or task a service dog has been trained to provide must be directly related to the person's disability. In addition, service dogs are allowed to go into all areas of the workplace where employees are typically allowed to go, even if the employer has a no-pets policy.

In the case of bringing a service animal to work, the employer likely needs detailed information regarding the employee’s disability and how the service animal will assist the employee with performing their essential job functions.

Emotional support animals

Finally, dogs whose sole function is to provide comfort or emotional support do not qualify as service animals under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Emotional support dogs are not required to perform specific tasks except for comforting an owner with emotional or psychological disabilities. In this case, an employer will be analyzing whether permitting the emotional support dog at the workplace is a reasonable accommodation.

In one emotional support dog case, however, the district court for the District of Columbia held there was no objective evidence that allowing an employee to bring his untrained puppy to work would have decreased his anxiety and allowed him to perform better.

The court cited a case dealing with a no-pet policy in a housing complex with the position that while “dogs possess the ability to give unconditional love, which simply makes people feel better,” this idea “permits no identifiable stopping point: Every person with a handicap or illness that caused or brought about feelings of depression, anxiety or low self-esteem would be entitled to the dog of their choice, without regard to individual training or ability.

“And if certain people liked cats, fish, reptiles or birds better than dogs, there would be no logical reason to deny an accommodation for these animals.”

Safe workplaces

Employers still have the right to ensure a safe workplace.

If a service or emotional support dog’s presence creates an undue hardship or direct threat to health and safety, employers will be able to prohibit its presence.

Health, well-being and safety issues must be addressed. Some employees have allergies to animals. Dogs may cause distractions at work, including barking and whining. Dogs may cause employees to slip, trip or fall. Finally, roughhousing may result in scratches and bites or damage to property.

Employers should engage in an interactive conversation with the emotional support pet’s owner regarding issues and concerns, including candid discussions about bite risk, roughhousing, employee or customer dog phobias/allergies, barking and whining, and dog feces and urine issues.

An employer should check with its insurance agent regarding possible insurance coverage for dogs in the workplace, and also request the dog owner to provide proof of insurance on the dog.

For example, an employee could bring a negligence claim (or perhaps a workers' compensation claim) against the employer for a dog bite occurring in the workplace.

In one California case, for example, a marriage and family therapist brought her dog to work on occasion, and the dog bit a patient during the session. There was extensive litigation as to which insurance policy and/or exclusions applied to the lawsuit.

Accordingly, it is important to require that an employee have insurance coverage and to review the policy for any exceptions pertaining to the workplace.

Finally, employers should have a written pet work policy that notifies all employees about their rights and their responsibilities, and who to talk to if they have concerns about pets in the office.

Wilford H. Stone is a lawyer with Lynch Dallas in Cedar Rapids. Comments: (319) 365-9101; wstone@lynchdallas.com