Should your organization treat illness such as the flu, colds and other minor ailments as disabilities?
Are you aware of the law in this area?
Is the flu, etc., covered by human rights law and other Canadian legislation like Ontario’s Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act?
There has been considerable discussion about these issues on the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act Forum on LinkedIn (group membership required).
Like most legal issues, this one requires time-consuming research, which I am currently undertaking. I hope to report my findings to you soon.
Meanwhile, I need your help. Please visit www.andrewlawson.wordpress.com and participate in the poll, Is the flu a disability? What a judge would say.
I look forward to hearing your comments on this issue and reading the poll results.
I will be reporting the results of my legal research to you very soon.
Take care.
Remember the mantra: Learn don’t litigate.
Andrew Lawson
www.learndl.ca
- Responding to a human rights complaint - September 5, 2012
- Ontario policy on competing human rights - August 8, 2012
- What does the case of Trayvon Martin tell us about racism in Canada? - April 4, 2012
Thanks for the comment Adrian!
I wonder if there is any similar provision in Canadian law.
Sorry if I am late in my response but have just come across this query.
In European Law flu cannot count as a disability unless it was a strain that had a substantial and long term effect.
In the UK this disability is covered by the Equality Act 2010 (and similarly across EU countries). This defines a disability as:
“A person (P) has a disability if—
(a) P has a physical or mental impairment, and
(b) the impairment has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on P’s ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities.”
The emphasis is on both ‘substantial’ and ‘long term’ and a distinction being made against anything you may recover from in the short to medium term. Most illnesses involving a period off work but with an expectation of full recovery and return to work, would not be considered an impairment counting as a disability.