An employee has been away from work for several months. Their manager wants to know whether they're coming back, payroll wants to know how to categorize the absence and a physician's note arrives with the words unable to work until reassessment. HR may feel it has a single medical file to resolve. In reality, the organization is dealing with several different decisions, each requiring a different kind of information and a different legal test. The duty to accommodate isn't the same as approving a protected leave. Employment standards legislation may give an eligible employee a period away from work with job protection. Human rights legislation imposes a related but distinct duty to consider reasonable changes to workplace rules, duties or conditions where a disability or other protected ground creates a barrier. An employee can exhaust a particular statutory leave and still have accommodation rights that require individualized assessment. Conversely, a request for time off doesn't automatically justify indefinite leave or every measure an employee prefers.
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