A recent Manitoba Human Rights Commission decision finding a woman was unjustly terminated for drinking off the job highlights the importance of an employer’s duty to accommodate addiction-related disabilities in the workplace, says Toronto employment lawyer Barry Goldman.
A human rights adjudicator found a health-care aide was entitled to be reinstated, receive three years of back pay and an additional $10,000 for injury to her dignity after she was fired for consuming alcohol outside of work.
The adjudicator ruled that alcohol addiction amounts to a disability under the Human Rights Code.