Reasonable Accommodation As Equal Opportunity in Canadian Employment Law

Abstract

The duties imposed on employers to reasonably accommodate employees in Canada arise directly out of anti-discrimination law, as requirements of obligations to afford equal opportunity without discrimination. This is unlike the United States and the European Union, where duties to accommodate merely supplement anti-discrimination law. This paper begins by outlining Canadian anti-discrimination doctrine in general terms and how it originated within the Canadian legal system. It then describes the scope of employers’ duties to accommodate and specifically addresses how employers have been required to accommodate religious belief and expression, disability, age and family status in the Canadian workplace. It next considers the few sources of reasonable accommodation obligations beyond those imposed by anti-discrimination law. It concludes by reflecting on some of the deficiencies of Canadian legal institutions to implement reasonable accommodation duties in the Canadian workplace. Despite their centrality to Canadian anti-discrimination law, most duties to accommodate are implemented primarily through institutions designed to respond to the complaints of individuals. This makes Canadian workplace law towards reasonable accommodation primarily reactive and has left gaps in the accommodation of Canadian workers.

Keywords: duty to accommodate, anti-discriminination law, employment law, comparative law