“The steps an employer takes to accommodate an employee is just as important as the accommodation itself – it’s going to be hard to show you’ve accommodated the employee to the point of undue hardship if you don’t follow the proper process.”
So says Nhi Huynh, an employment lawyer at Williams HR Law in the Greater Toronto Area, after Air Canada was ordered to pay a worker more than $30,000 in discrimination damages for denying the worker a promotion because of physical limitations from a workplace injury.
The worker joined Air Canada in 2011 as a call centre agent in Montreal. He worked in that role until January 2016, when a loud screech and static came through his headphones and hurt his ears. This caused continuous ringing and buzzing in his ears afterwards.
