Undue hardship – myth or reality? Learn the latest!

Every employer has experience accommodating employees due to their religion, family needs, and disability. Accommodation is a necessary practice to manage a workplace today, and it’s the law in Canada, enshrined in the Canadian Human Rights Act and various provincial/territorial statutes. But every case of accommodation is different, and interpretations of the law vary.

The Canadian Human Rights Commission says:

The duty to accommodate refers to the obligation of an employer or service provider to take measures to eliminate disadvantages to employees, prospective employees or clients that result from a rule, practice or physical barrier that has or may have an adverse impact on individuals or groups protected under the Canadian Human Rights Act or identified as a designated group under the Employment Equity Act.

But only to the point of “undue hardship”. If the required accommodations would demand too great a cost or lead to intractable health and safety issues within the organization, the employer is freed from its obligation to accommodate.

But you know all of that, and you probably already take the duty seriously. You take the Meiorin test when instituting new controls:

  1. Is the standard for a purpose rationally connected to the performance of the job?
  2. Do you believe in good faith that the standard is necessary to fulfil the legitimate work-related purpose?
  3. Is the standard reasonably necessary to accomplish that legitimate purpose?

Still, it seems some employers can never do enough, no matter how hard they try. Can you be sure that your accommodation efforts will be enough to satisfy your employees in need? Find out at the 2011 Ontario Employment Law Conference, where employment and human rights lawyer Allison Taylor will get you up to speed on:

  • What the courts and human rights tribunals are saying about the standard required of employers
  • Practical strategies for accommodating family status and sporadic absences
  • How to avoid common missteps
  • How to manage a termination for “frustration of contract”

Here’s Allison with an idea of what to expect.

So what are you waiting for? This is a whole lot of good advice from knowledgeable professionals! Register for the 2011 Employment Law Conference—and Learn the latest! (Registrations now closed)

Adam Gorley
First Reference Human Resources and Compliance Editor

Share

Related Posts

Imagen 1

Employees with disabilities – accommodation strategies (Part I)

Accommodating employees with disabilities to the point of undue hardship under human rights legislation can be a complicated task. It’s important to make sure the accommodation process goes smoothly and the employee can focus on working as efficiently as possible, but employers may not be sure about what kinds of questions to ask disabled employees in order to meet their needs.

Christina Catenacci, BA, LLB, LLM, PhD

Read more
Imagen 1

Slaw: Canadian Human Rights Commission’s controversial ‘anti-hate’ policy

The Canadian Human Rights Commission recently posted a policy on its website concerning how it interprets and applies section 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Act (CHRA) when it receives an inquiry or complaint. The purpose of section 13 of the Act is to balance Canadians’ rights to equality and freedom of expression with respect to hate messages, as protected by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The parliamentary record indicates that section 13 was initially included in the legislation to address activities of individuals and groups who used the telephone system to disseminate hate messages. In December 2001, parliament amended the CHRA by adding section 13(2), which makes it clear that Internet hate messages come under the jurisdiction of the commission.

Read the whole article on Slaw.ca.

Marie-Yosie Saint-Cyr, LL.B. Managing Editor

Read more
Imagen 1

The new age of workplace gossip – TMI!

I’ve discussed workplace gossip here before, and what bosses can do to prevent it or at least reduce the potential harm, but there are a couple of hyper-modern developments that I didn’t get into: reality television and the Internet. These two things have created a culture of “sharing”, for lack of a better word, that encourages people at play or work to divulge the most mundane and private details of their lives to others—the kind of information that one previously might only have shared with family or best friends.

Adam Gorley

Read more