Ontario Human Rights CodeKey Terminology

Glossary- and some notesaccommodation(in employment, services)—to eliminate non-essential job requirements and to adapt or adjust existing job requirements or conditions, in order to enable a person to carry out the essential duties of an activity or job.

An employer must, for example, make the workplace physically accessible or otherwise enable its employees to perform the essential job duties, unless such accommodation would cause undue hardship. (See: “undue hardship” in this Glossary.) For a blind employee, accommodation could mean providing a voice synthesizer on a computer; for other protected groups, it could mean altering a dress code or changing shift work to accommodate employees’ individualr eligious practices.

Continued… adverse impact—discrimination which arises when an employer, service

provider or property manager for genuine business reasons adopts a rule or standard which appears to be neutral, and which will apply equally to all, but which has a discriminatory effect on a particular group protected by the Code. It is discriminatory in that it imposes, because of some special charac-teristic of that group, obligations, penalties or restrictive conditions not imposed on other members of society.

bona fide(job requirements)—requirements sincerely believed necessary for the job (that is, established in good faith) and, in an objective sense, reasonably necessary to assure the safe, efficient and economical performance of the job.

And again…disability—Under the Ontario Human Rights Code, this is any:

degree of physical disability or disfigurement caused by injury, illness or birth defect;

learning disability or any dysfunction in the ability to understand or use symbols or speech;

developmental disability;

psychiatric disability; or

injury or disability for which the person claimed or received benefits under the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act, 1997.

More… equal treatment—treatment that brings about an equality of results and that

may, in some instances, require different treatment. For example, to give all employees equal treatment in entering a building, it may be necessary to provide a ramp for an employee who requires the use of a wheelchair.

essential duties—those duties and requirements essential for the performance of the job. For example, if a person applies for a position as a lawyer, it may not be “essential” that she or he operate a photocopier. However, if that person applies for a job in a copy shop, that duty may be “essential.” If an employee cannot perform the essential duties of the job, the employer must make efforts to accommodate the employee, short of undue hardship.

And… undue hardship (to the employer)—when accommodating the needs of an

individual or a protected group (such as people with disabilities) would alter the essential nature of the enter-prise, substantially affect the economic viability of the enterprise, or produce a substantial health and safety risk that outweighs the benefit of accommodating that group or individual worker. The employer has the burden of proving that accommodating an employee would cause undue hardship for the business