Pubdate: Thu, 02 Mar 2017
Source: Toronto Star (CN ON)
Copyright: 2017 The Toronto Star
Contact:  http://www.thestar.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/456
Author: Peter Goffin
Page: A2

WHEN ADDICTION BECOMES A DISABILITY

Guidelines help employers understand needs of workers with substance
dependence

Bill Moynagh hadn't been turning up for work.

It was the mid-1990s and Moynagh was a forklift driver at a plumbing
supply chain.

He was also submerged in alcoholism and struggling to fulfil basic
duties, like showing up for shifts or paying his bills.

His bosses tried to call him, but Moynagh's phone had been
disconnected.

When he eventually did go in, he was fired for missing
shifts.

He soon lost another forklift job after he was caught drinking at
work.

"It was just, 'You're gone,' " said Moynagh, 59, who has been sober
for over a decade.

"Neither (company) ever offered me any help or anything like
that."

In the 20 years since Moynagh lost his jobs, Canada's human rights
tribunals and courts of appeal have started treating drug and alcohol
dependency as a disability.

Workers who are fired, or otherwise mistreated by employers, because
of substance abuse issues are now often protected in the same way that
a person fired for having a physical impairment would be.

"Most people probably wouldn't be surprised to hear (an employer) say,
'Hey, he was drunk so I fired him,' " said Jeff Meldrum, spokesperson
for the Canadian Human Rights Commission.

"But the reality is, if you do that, you might get yourself into some
legal trouble. Because it could well be that the person's drinking is
(now considered) a disability."

In response to this evolving definition of "disability," the
commission released a new set of guidelines last week for employers
trying to understand the needs of staff with drug or alcohol dependency.

"Impaired at work: A guide to accommodating substance dependence"
offers tips for managers on broaching the topic of substance abuse
with struggling employees and providing accommodations that will,
ideally, keep sufferers of addiction in the workforce as they seek
treatment.

The commission, which has jurisdiction over federally regulated
industries like air travel and telecommunications, is not the only
agency updating its literature on substance abuse and workplace
accommodations. The Ontario Human Rights Commission, which sets rights
regulations for the majority of workplaces in the province, issued a
"Policy on preventing discrimination based on mental health
disabilities and addiction" in 2014, and a new policy on workplace
drug and alcohol testing in 2016.

Substance abuse is not explicitly listed as a disability in either the
federal or provincial human rights laws.

But new precedents have been set over the past 10 years or so, Meldrum
said, by judges and tribunal adjudicators who have interpreted
disability rights to cover people with substance dependency issues.

Employers are not expected to keep substance-dependent staff on the
job if their behaviour could be a safety risk.

A forklift driver like Moynagh, for instance, would likely not be
allowed to keep his position.

But the Canadian Human Rights Commission guidelines say employers
should offer staff the option of taking time off while they seek
treatment, or move staff with substance abuse issues into other jobs,
where safety is not a concern.

Employers may also be let off the hook if the cost of providing
accommodations would be an "undue hardship" to their business, but the
employer must prove that to be the case in front of a human rights
tribunal.

Janet Salopek, of the human resource consulting agency Salopek &
Associates, said the best thing employers can do is set up internal
workplace protocols for handling staff disabilities, and ensure
managers are aware of the human rights requirements.

"It's really doing that coaching with managers to make sure they
understand, because it's easy to make a mistake if you don't
understand," Salopek said. "How would they know unless we train them?"
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MAP posted-by: Matt