Employees’ Rights under the Ontario Human Rights Code are Not Infringed by a “Failure to Accommodate”

Is an employee required to prove that his employer “failed to accommodate” his parental status in order to succeed in a human rights case in Ontario? Or must the employee establish only that his employer breached his rights? Does an employee have a freestanding right to be "accommodated to the point of undue hardship?"

In a case concerning an employee whose employment was terminated after he took days off work to care for his sick children, Miraka v. A.C.D. Wholesale Meats Ltd., 2016 HRTO 41, Vice-Chair Sheri D. Price confirmed that an employer’s inability to accommodate an employee’s family status operates as a defence to an allegation; it is not a requirement of the applicant to show that the employer could not do so.

Human Rights Adjudicator Allows Employee to Take Entire Summer Off to Care for Disabled Child

Is a request to take leave without pay from mid-July to the end of August, in order to care for one’s disabled child, a reasonable request, which an employer must accommodate to the point of undue hardship?

For most employers unfamiliar with the provisions of human rights legislation, the question may seem ridiculous or incredible. Certainly no employee could demand to have the entire summer off, simply because one’s child is not in school.

However, in a decision released by the Northwest Territories Human Rights Adjudication Panel, A.B. v Yellowknife (City), 2016 CanLII 19718 (NT HRAP), the answer was that the employee was entitled to have the requested leave of absence and a finding was made that the employer had discriminated against the employee, on the basis of family status, by failing to accommodate her to the point of undue hardship.

Court Censures Employer After Refusing to Reinstate Employee Following Maternity Leave and Creating Childcare Chaos

What will be the court’s censure for an employer’s unwillingness to accommodate its employees’ childcare arrangements, except where legitimate, justifiable grounds exist for being unable to do so? According to the Honourable Justice Susan E. Healey of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, no less than $20,000.

In her reasons for decision reported at Partridge v. Botony Dental Corporation, 2015 ONSC 343, affirmed on appeal 2015 ONCA 836, Justice Healey threw the proverbial book at an employer who not only falsely alleged just cause for dismissal, but also engaged in acts of reprisal and violated one of its employee’s human rights after the employee had taken maternity leave.

In another good hard look at the consequences of messing with an employee’s right to return to work following maternity leave, (see also the case of Bray v Canadian College of Massage and Hydrotherapy, 2015 CanLII 3452 (ON SCSM), a decision of the Ontario Small Claims Court, summarized by this blog in the post Ontario Small Claims Court Awards Human Rights and Punitive Damages after New Mom Constructively Dismissed,) Ontario’s judges continue to demonstrate that an employee’s right to take parental leave is pretty much sacrosanct.

Employers Need Not Accommodate Employees “Choice” to Breastfeed - PSLREB

Are work requirements that impact on an employee’s breastfeeding schedules discrimination and, if so, are they discrimination on the basis of sex or family status or both? And does the distinction, if any, matter? What is necessary for a grievor to establish a prima facie case of discrimination on the basis of breastfeeding? What duty, if any, does an employer have to accommodate an employee who is breastfeeding, and how far — and for how long — does that duty extend?

Those were the questions that Public Service Labour Relations and Employment Board member Augustus Richardson was asked to answer in the case of Flatt v Treasury Board (Department of Industry), 2014 PSLREB 2 (CanLII). Not easy questions to be sure.

Federal Court of Appeal Affirms Decision that Employers Must Accommodate Employees' Childcare Obligations

On May 2, 2014, the Federal Court of Appeal confirmed that employers have a legal obligation to accommodate their employees' “childcare obligations” as a component of their duty to accommodate an employee’s “family status.”

In its decisions in the parallel cases of Canada (Attorney General) v. Johnstone, 2014 FCA 110 (CanLII) and Canadian National Railway v. Denise Seeley and Canadian Human Rights Commission the Federal Court of Appeal confirmed that the definition of “family status” in the Canadian Human Rights Act includes “parental obligations.”

Employers Must Accommodate Parents - What It Means

On January 31st, 2013, a Federal Court judge affirmed a 2010 ruling of the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal that said that employers have a duty to accommodate “childcare obligations” as a component of their duty to accommodate an employee’s “family status.” On May 2, 2014, the Federal Court of Appeal varied the Federal Court’s ruling slightly, but for reasons immaterial to this post. In all other respects the court upheld the decision in favour of Ms. Johnstone.

The facts of the case and the courts’ decisions have left many Canadians, both employees and employers, asking questions about what the decision means for them.