undue hardship

Q&A: Frustration of employment

September 20, 2019 Vey Willetts LLP Employee Relations, Employment/Labour Standards, Health and Safety, HR Policies and Procedures, Human Resources, Human Rights, Notice, Damages and Settlements, Payroll, 0

Q&A is a recurring series on the Vey Willetts LLP blog. The aim is to provide quick answers to questions we commonly encounter in our day-to-day practice of employment law. In this edition, we focus on “frustration of employment.”

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Objective evidence required when attempting to limit or deny an employee’s accommodation request

September 9, 2019 Employer Advisor, McCarthy Tétrault LLP Employee Relations, Health and Safety, Human Resources, Human Rights, Notice, Damages and Settlements, Payroll, 0

Recent Ontario human rights jurisprudence has reaffirmed many of the principles associated with the employer’s duty to accommodate. In particular, when assessing accommodation requests, employers need not apply/accept each accommodation request, but must ensure that they are only denying or limiting lawful accommodation requests in the presence of sufficient evidence to support the limitation or denial.

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Cannabis in the workplace: “If the employer cannot measure impairment, it cannot manage risk”

July 8, 2019 Employer Advisor, McCarthy Tétrault LLP Employee Relations, Health and Safety, HR Policies and Procedures, Human Resources, Human Rights, Recruiting and Hiring, Union Relations, 0

With the legalization of recreational cannabis in full effect, employers continue to grapple with the workplace implications of its use. However, having to balance statutory obligations under both health and safety and human rights legislation is not a new problem for employers.

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What is undue hardship?

October 19, 2018 Jeff Dutton, Dutton Employment Law Employee Relations, Health and Safety, HR Policies and Procedures, Human Resources, Human Rights

The right to accommodation at work in Canada is not absolute. Employers only have an obligation to accommodate disabled employees up to undue hardship and can therefore terminate or suspend disabled employees if the employee cannot be accommodated.

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Before the duty to accommodate, the duty to inquire

December 11, 2017 De Bousquet PC Barristers and Solicitors Employee Relations, Health and Safety, Human Resources, Human Rights

If the duty to accommodate is a well-known concept, the duty to inquire is a fuzzy notion. The principle is that an employee seeking accommodation for a disability is under a duty to disclose sufficient information to her employer to enable it fulfill its duty to accommodate.

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Reinstatement of employment at the Human Rights Tribunal

November 23, 2017 De Bousquet PC Barristers and Solicitors Employee Relations, Employment/Labour Standards, Human Resources, Human Rights, Notice, Damages and Settlements, Payroll, Pensions and Benefits, Wages and Compensation

Reinstatement is the practice of re-installing an employee to his/her position as it existed prior to termination, or to the fullest extent possible, which may include the preservation of their pre-existing seniority, pension and other benefits.

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A primer on undue hardship and frustration of contract

August 29, 2017 Matt Lalande, Lalande & Company Lawyers Employee Relations, HR Policies and Procedures, Human Resources, Human Rights, Notice, Damages and Settlements, Payroll, Pensions and Benefits, Union Relations, Wages and Compensation

This blog post provides a primer on the state of undue harship and frustration of contract under Ontario’s Human Rights Code.

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Marijuana use remains cloudy

June 29, 2017 Kevin Sambrano, Sambrano Legal Services Employee Relations, Health and Safety, HR Policies and Procedures, Human Resources, Human Rights

As laws regarding marijuana continue to evolve, even now employers are faced with ongoing legal questions concerning medical marijuana use in the workplace.

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Medical marijuana: A high cost to employers? #learnthelatest

May 26, 2017 Stringer LLP Conferences, Employee Relations, HR Policies and Procedures, Human Resources, Human Rights, Notice, Damages and Settlements, Payroll, Pensions and Benefits, Source Deductions and Reporting, Union Relations

Learn the Latest at the Ontario Employment Law Conference

A recent case from Nova Scotia illustrates that as laws and social attitudes concerning marijuana change, employers may be burdened with previously unexpected costs.

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The end of accommodation? Frustration of the employment contract as a last resort

May 16, 2017 Stringer LLP Accessibility Standards, Employee Relations, Employment/Labour Standards, HR Policies and Procedures, Human Resources, Human Rights, Notice, Damages and Settlements, Payroll, Pensions and Benefits, Source Deductions and Reporting, Standard for Employment, Union Relations, Wages and Compensation

One of the goals of legislation such as the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act and the Human Rights Code is to promote accessibility and accommodation in various forums, including the workplace. However, when it becomes clear that, despite accommodating an employee to the point of undue hardship, a disabled employee will never again be able to return to his or her job or be accommodated in another position, what can an employer do?

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Additional employer obligations? Domestic and sexual violence

January 31, 2017 Rubin Thomlinson LLP Employee Relations, Employment/Labour Standards, Health and Safety, HR Policies and Procedures, Human Resources, Payroll, Pensions and Benefits, Source Deductions and Reporting, Training and Development, Union Relations, Wages and Compensation

As of the writing of this blog, Bill 26 has passed second reading and is before the Standing Committee on the Legislative Assembly for consultation and, so it remains to be seen if the above changes will come into force. That said, with the recent legislative attention on protecting employees with respect to sexual harassment and violence, it is likely that employers may soon need to revisit their policies and programs to account for domestic and sexual violence.

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Accommodation and when employees don’t engage in the process

December 9, 2016 Lisa Stam, Spring Law Employee Relations, HR Policies and Procedures, Human Resources, Human Rights, Union Relations

The Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario (HRTO) released a very important development on family status discrimination, in a case that intersects with disability accommodation law. In Misetich v Value Village Stores, the tribunal reviewed the caselaw, including the Federal Court of Appeal’s Johnstone case, and clarified its test for accommodating family status requests in the workplace.

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Disability as a variable – A new optic

November 29, 2016 Christopher Lytle MA CDS Accessibility Standards, Employee Relations, HR Policies and Procedures, Human Resources, Human Rights, Standard for Customer Service, Standard for Employment, Standard for Information and Communications

Looking at an Ontario Human Rights Commission discussion paper released in 2001, the aspects that make what is called intersectionality so appealing to a modern view of identity is that it does not pigeon hole a person as being represented by a sole code ground, or identity that is legally protected against discrimination.

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Employee unable to show dismissal was discriminatory

August 29, 2016 Cristina Lavecchia Employee Relations, Employment/Labour Standards, Health and Safety, HR Policies and Procedures, Human Resources, Human Rights, Training and Development

The British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal recently denied an employee’s complaint alleging that his employer discriminated against him on the basis of a physical disability. The Tribunal denied the employee’s complaint because there was no link between the employee’s alleged chronic pain and his use of marijuana.

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Workplace accommodation has limits

August 24, 2016 Devry Smith Frank LLP Employee Relations, Employment/Labour Standards, Health and Safety, HR Policies and Procedures, Human Resources, Human Rights, Penalties and Fines, Training and Development, Union Relations

In Pourasadi v Bentley Leathers Inc., the Human Rights Tribunal found that accommodating a store manager by permitting the employee not to assist customers was not required, since assisting customers was an essential duty of her position.

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