Employers have a legal duty to accommodate their employees who are suffering from an illness or injury that affects their role in the workplace. There is a blog that was previously posted on our website regarding accommodation in the workplace if you would like to learn more about that (https://sdlawtimmins.com/accommodation-in-the-workplace/). This post looks at an employer’s exception to this duty.

Undue Hardship

An employer’s duty to accommodate only extends to the point of undue hard. Undue hardship essentially means that accommodating an employee or multiple employees would cause a very serious burden or hardship on the employer. Cost, health and safety, changes to the physical workplace, and impact on employee morale are a few factors that may support an employer’s claim of undue hardship. The employer must prove that any of these factors would amount to undue hardship by providing factual and objective evidence such as financial statements, scientific data, and expert opinions.

If the employer can establish that any accommodation or changes to a standard, rule, or practice would create undue hardship, the employer may qualify for the Bona Fide Occupational Requirement (BFOR) exemption against the duty to accommodate.

Bona Fide Occupational Requirement

The law allows employers to discrimination, ONLY if the discrimination is a legitimate (real) or essential job requirement. Take an airline company requiring its pilots to pass a standard vision test. Pilots having good eyesight is an essential requirement of their job and therefore passing a standard vision test would qualify as a BFOR and exempting the employer from their accommodation duties.

Establishing a Bona Fide Occupational Requirement

An employer MUST prove that the standard rule or practice that is discriminatory:

1. Was adopted for a purpose rationally connected to the performance of the job
2. Was adopted in an honest and good faith belief that it was necessary to fulfil that legitimate work-related goal; and
3. Is reasonably necessary to accomplish the legitimate work-related purpose

Connect With Suzanne Desrosiers Professional Corporation

If you are an employer or employee faced with a workplace situation that involves a duty to accommodate, an undue hardship, or a BFOR or have any other employment related questions, please feel free to reach out to Suzanne Desrosiers Professional Corporation by calling us at (705) 268-6492 or emailing us at info@sdlawtimmins.com and we would be more than happy to help!