Human rights legislation obliges employers to accommodate employee disabilities to the point of undue hardship. That includes accommodating medical leaves as a result of those disabilities. It puts a significant onus on employers ... as it should.
Most employers accept and understand easily an absence due to surgery or a specific illness, injury or disease. What many employers have a hard time accepting is accommodating recurring absences that most often arise from mental-health issues. Unfortunately, many do not understand just how debilitating and real mental-health issues can be. Jamie’s problem with his employer was not the stigma of mental-health issues. It was his absences.
Jamie had worked for a food warehouse for 20 years by the time he was terminated.
In the last nine years of his employment, he was absent 25 per cent of the time. Those absences over the years related to a variety of illnesses and injuries, but predominantly they were caused by Jamie’s significant recurring depression. He sought extensive counselling and medical treatment, but the problem persisted.
This case was not about Jamie being absent without permission or a doctor’s note. The employer ultimately terminated the relationship as there seemed to be no hope Jamie would ever be able to regularly attend work. Jamie did a good job when he was at work, and...
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