Under Nova Scotia laws, people with disabilities have important legal rights when it comes to employment:
- You have the right to receive equal treatment, equal opportunity and equal access to employment opportunities without discrimination because of your disability.
- You have the right to receive accommodations for your disability from your employer, prospective employer, or employment agency up to the point of undue hardship.
- You have the right to work in a healthy and safe work environment.
- You have the right to challenge/make a complaint about unfair or unsafe working conditions without fear of punishment.
Duty to Accommodate and Undue Hardship
Duty to Accommodate: An employer’s legal “duty to accommodate” means that they are legally required to provide you with the support you need to succeed in the workplace. In most cases, the “duty to accommodate” will arise after the employee has made an accommodation request. In some instances, however, the “duty to accommodate” will arise without an accommodation request being made, for example, if the employer has reason to believe an employee is experiencing difficulties as a result of a disability.
The “duty to accommodate” involves a two-step process:
- Information gathering: Requires the employer to conduct individual assessments of an employee’s needs and capabilities. This will likely involve the assistance of healthcare professionals.
- Providing a suitable accommodation: Once the employee has been assessed, the employer has a duty to make efforts to provide the employee with reasonable accommodations.
Undue Hardship: The “duty to accommodate” has a limit and this limit is called “undue hardship. “Undue hardship” is a legal term. It means that if an employer can show that it is very difficult for them to provide you with a certain type of accommodation, then they don’t have to provide it. The point of undue hardship is determined by the courts or human rights tribunals.
It is difficult to demonstrate that accommodation would result in undue hardship. To establish this, the employer would have to prove that providing accommodations would:
- Be impossible;
- Create serious health or safety risks; or
- Be so costly as to significantly interfere with the employer’s ability to operate.
In each case, the employer would have to prove that they had considered all reasonable alternatives to accommodate you.
Where do my legal rights come from?
In Nova Scotia, your legal rights come from two main pieces of legislation, including:
- Nova Scotia’s Human Rights Act prohibits discrimination based on disability in different areas of public life within Nova Scotia, including discrimination by employers and within the workplace.
- The Labour Standards Code is a provincial code that sets out minimum standards with which employers must comply.
Other relevant pieces of legislation that are based on the principles of equity and inclusion include:
- Nova Scotia’s Accessibility Act – This provincial Act requires the prevention and removal of barriers that people with disabilities may experience with respect to employment, among other factors.
- The Accessible Canada Act – This federal Act works to identify and remove barriers in federal jurisdiction. The goal of this legislation is to make Canada a “Barrier Free” country by the year 2040.
- The Employment Equity Act - This federal Act aims to achieve equality in the workplace by setting out responsibilities that federally regulated employers are encouraged to follow to eliminate discrimination within the workplace.
- The Canadian Human Rights Act – This federal Act prohibits discrimination based on disability in federally regulated areas of public life, including discrimination by employers and within the workplace.