Employers should pause and reflect where Human Rights are concerned

It cannot ask for a diagnosis but it can ask for medical documentation confirming that there is some impediment to the employee fulfilling all their usual duties and hours for a medical reason. The Employer can ask for details of the accommodation required such as shorter hours or some sort of ergonomic changes to the workplace. Once the employee has provided that information, the Employer should always pause and reflect. If it is going to get anywhere close to being able to claim that accommodating the employee would be an undue hardship it must be able to show that it took a considered approach to the issue and thought about all options available. Simply arriving at the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal and claiming that the request could not be accommodated will not get the Employer off the hook

Chelsea worked at a retail store that employed 5 people including the manager. Two were students with some limitations to the hours they could work and two, including Chelsea, were available for most shifts. Chelsea had had continuing lower back pain issues. She sent an email to her boss indicating that her back problems were getting worse and she needed to get it sorted out. She told the boss that for the next 4 weeks she would get others to cover her shifts or if she had to she wouldcover them herself but as of a month later she would only be able to work one shift a week as the stress on her back was too much. The boss could have requested a doctor’s note at that time but did not. She took Chelsea at her word. 

A few days later she sent Chelsea an email saying “Unfortunately I am going to have to let you go for one day a week is not going to be beneficial to me or the store.”. Chelsea brought a claim before the Human Rights Tribunal claiming the Employer failed to accommodate her disability and should not have fired her. At the hearing the Employer did not introduce any evidence that the Manager had asked other staff if they were interested in taking on additional shifts while Chelsea was recuperating. In fact, after Chelsea’s termination, her shifts were taken over in part by the other staff. A few more staff were hired but they only worked one or two shifts a week. If you take a step back, what the Employer did was nonsensical from the beginning. Putting aside the Human Rights issues and the morality and fairness of the situation, they shot themselves in the foot. They already had a well-trained and good employee who needed to work less for a limited amount of time. In stead of hiring one or two extra people to fill in shifts they fired her and trained more brand new employees than they had to. Chelsea was awarded $15,000.00 in general damages for the injury to her dignity, feelings and self-respect. The Employer was ordered to train it’s Managers on Human Rights issues. Don’t be like Chelsea’s Employer. Get advice and appropriately consider all options before refusing an accommodation request.