Legal Question in Employment Law in Pennsylvania

Fear of Flying

I am deathly afraid to fly. I avoid it at all costs and will only travel by car, even on vacations. When I was hired in 1998, my employers knew of this and it was no problem. Through the years whenever I had to go anywhere, it was always within driving distance. Recently, I had went to Boston and was allowed to drive even though another employee who went previously flew. Company paid all my travel expense (mileage).

Recently we opened a new office overseas and there have been hints from my employer I may have to go to train them on software I wrote. I said ''no way am I getting on a plane'' and the hints went away, although they said I would have to come up with another way of training which I did. However, due to a lack of a reliable internet connection, the hints are coming back stronger than ever that they want me to go.

The company employs 9 people in this country and right now about 7 people overseas. One of the owners regularly flies over there about 3-4 times per year, but does not have the technical knowledge that I do.

Since I have had my fear prior to my hiring, they knew about it and accommodated it throughout the years, could I be terminated for refusing to fly overseas?

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