Workplace Human Rights
Discrimination, Accommodation, Remedies & Employer Liability
This chapter examines workplace human rights law, including the statutory process,
proof of discrimination, the duty to accommodate, protected grounds, workers’ compensation,
remedies, damages, reinstatement, employer liability and mental disability.
Foundations of Workplace Human Rights
The basic principles, status and remedies of Canadian workplace human rights law.
The Statutory Process
Jurisdiction, access to the human rights process, limitation periods and the parties to a complaint.
- The Statutory Process
- General Principles of Statutory Interpretation
- Entitlement to a Hearing
- Judicial Review of the Screening Process
- Limitation Periods
- Defining Employment for Jurisdiction
- Conduct Outside the Workplace Premises
- The Parties to the Complaint
- The Union as a Party
- Group Action
- Claim Settled Against Some Respondents
- Ontario Rule 13
The Grievance Process & Human Rights
The relationship between grievance proceedings and statutory human rights remedies.
Workers’ Comp & Human Rights
The interaction between workers’ compensation proceedings and workplace human rights claims, including concurrent jurisdiction, return-to-work obligations, successive proceedings, issue estoppel and case splitting.
- Human Rights & Workers’ Compensation
- Workers’ Comp & Human Rights: The Interplay
- Return to Work Issues: Workers’ Comp vs Human Rights
- Workers’ Comp & Human Rights: Challenges on a Grand Scale
- Workers’ Comp followed by Human Rights: Internal Appeal Mandatory before Human Rights?
- Factual Estoppel
- Case Splitting
Proving the Case: Prima Facie Discrimination
The evidentiary and causal requirements for establishing discrimination.
Evidence at the Human Rights Hearing
Evidentiary issues commonly arising in workplace human rights proceedings.
Duty to Accommodate
The procedural and substantive duties imposed upon employers when workplace rules
adversely affect an employee because of a protected characteristic.
Protected Human Rights
Protected characteristics commonly arising in the employment relationship.
Damage Awards: Injured Feelings & Loss of Dignity
Monetary awards for injury to dignity, feelings and self-respect, including jurisdictional comparisons.
Damages: Lost Income
Past and future income loss arising from discriminatory workplace conduct.
Lost Opportunity
Compensation where discriminatory conduct causes the loss of an employment or advancement opportunity.
Other Human Rights Remedies
Remedies extending beyond compensation for injury to dignity and lost income.
Remedy: Reinstatement
Reinstatement remedies in Ontario and other Canadian human rights jurisdictions.
Employer Liability & Defences
Employer liability, due diligence and steps capable of reducing or defeating a human rights claim.
The Mentally Disabled Employee: A Tangled Web
Human rights, accommodation, disability benefits and related employer liability involving mental disability.
- The Mentally Disabled Employee: A Tangled Web
- Defining Mental Disability
- Finding Liability in Human Rights Cases
- Accommodation to the Point of Undue Hardship
- Accommodation & Relapse
- Mental Disability & Addiction
- The Continuing Duty to Accommodate
- Negligence Claim Against Employer for Lost Disability Benefits
- Liability of Employer as Agent of Disability Insurance Provider
Policies & Related Issues
Additional workplace human rights resources and related statutory issues.
Ontario Civil Actions
The relationship between human rights remedies and civil proceedings in Ontario.
Important Human Rights Statutes
Links to federal, provincial and territorial human rights and related employment legislation.
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