“[Employers] must make sure they’re communicating clearly the information that they need to accommodate a disabled worker, because that information is the foundation for creating an accommodation plan when they’re able to return to work – and that necessarily involves communication from the worker.”
So says labour and employment lawyer Andrea C. Johnson, partner at Gerrand Rath Johnson in Regina, after the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal overturned a lower court’s ruling that found an employer failed to accommodate an employee’s disability.
The now-64-year-old worker was hired in 2013 by the Rural Municipality of Baildon, Sask., to be its administrator. In November 2014, she suffered a concussion in a non-work-related accident. Her doctor authorized a medical leave until Dec. 4.
