“The [accommodation] efforts of the employer need to be sincere, and a good way of demonstrating that is by thoroughly canvassing what opportunities may exist and augment that by being creative – and if the employee doesn’t show a similar commitment, they’re going to be the ones that will be scrutinized.”
So says labour and employment lawyer Michael Penner of Kent Employment Law in Victoria, after the Federal Public Sector Labour Relations and Employment Board ruled that an employer reached undue hardship when an employee declined a lower-level position following years of accommodation efforts.
The worker was a parole officer with the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) in Kingston, Ont. In 2008, she was assaulted by an inmate at CSC’s regional treatment centre (RTC). She was assigned to another institution for three years.
