Our Canadian employers may be interested that on November 3, 2014, Doug MacLeod of The MacLeod Law Firm in Toronto will be co-hosting a seminar on managing disabled employees.

seminar training : Portrait of a confident senior manager giving presentation to his colleagues at office

As he says:  “There is a perfect storm developing when it comes to managing disabled employees. The workforce is aging and some older workers can’t perform all of their job duties. The level of workforce stress is increasing which is causing more mental illness. The number of recognized mental disabilities is increasing. And new legal obligations are being imposed on employers with respect to disabled employees.”

Among the legal issues he notes that he will discuss are:

1. What is a disability? Is a flu or cold a disability at law? Is an alcoholic or a smoker disabled? You will learn whether or not you are obliged to accommodate these kind of medical conditions.

2. If an employee is disabled then an employer is generally required to bring the person back to work when he can perform some of his job duties unless he cannot perform his essential job duties with accommodation. You will learn how to use job descriptions and physical demand analysis to improve your legal position when it comes to assessing whether a person is capable of performing his “essential” job duties.

3. If a person is not capable of performing his pre-disability job, are you required to offer him alternative employment? For work-related injuries, you will learn your obligations under workers compensation legislation, and for non-work related obligations you will learn your obligations under the Ontario Human Rights Code.

4. Did you know the Ontario Human Rights Commission has a 36 page “Policy and guidelines on disability and the duty to accommodate”, and a 78 page “Policy on preventing discrimination based on mental health disabilities and addictions”. You will learn how the Commission interprets the duty to accommodate and what kinds of policies you should have in place to satisfy the duty to accommodate.

5. Effective January 1. 2016, employers with 50 or more employees must have written individual accommodation plans in place for every disabled employee. You will learn what must be included in these plans.

Click here for more info: http://www.macleodlawfirm.ca/employers/2014/10/the-macleod-law-firms-next-seminar-managing-a-disabled-employee/

A useful seminar!