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ARTICLE · 01 FEBRUARY 2005

Accommodation — How Far Must Employers Go?

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Canadian human rights legislation prohibits employers from discriminating against employees on various prohibited grounds. One of the most difficult challenges for employers is fulfilling the duty to accommodate employees to the point of undue hardship. Recent trends demonstrate that discrimination and accommodation issues are increasingly complex, forcing employers to consider questions they are not always well-equipped to answer. For example, aging workforces, treatment of individuals with cog

CanadaEmployment and HR
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Originally published in Blakes Bulletin on Labour & Employment – February 2005

Article by Holly Reid, ©2005 Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP

Canadian human rights legislation prohibits employers from discriminating against employees on various prohibited grounds. One of the most difficult challenges for employers is fulfilling the duty to accommodate employees to the point of undue hardship. Recent trends demonstrate that discrimination and accommodation issues are increasingly complex, forcing employers to consider questions they are not always well-equipped to answer. For example, aging workforces, treatment of individuals with cognitive and psychological disabilities, and employees’ child care concerns have become hot-button issues in the law of accommodation. Applying the concepts of discrimination, accommodation and undue hardship to the real world is not an easy task for most employers.

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