Meeting Your Duty to Accommodate
Best Practices for Your Accommodation, Return-to-Work, and Disability Management Programs
Conference: August 19 and 20, 2008
Optional Workshop: August 21, 2008
Calgary, Alberta
Conference Program Agenda - Day Two
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
| 8:30 - 9:00 |
Continental Breakfast |
8:30 - 9:00 |
9:00 - 9:15
Welcome and Opening Remarks from the Chair
9:15 - 10:15
Drug and Alcohol Addictions in the Workplace: Defining the Legal Scope
Michael Ford, Partner, McCarthy Tétrault
- Defining the scope of your duty to accommodate employees with alcohol and drug addictions
- Impact of the recent Kellogg Brown & Root ruling
- Contradictions with earlier precedents such as Entrop v. Imperial Oil
- What employers should expect from the legal landscape regarding pre-employment testing
and casual use versus addiction
10:15 - 11:15
Thinking Outside the Cup: Preventing Substance Abuse in the Workplace
Ron Beach, BSc, RPN, Provincial Prevention Consultant, Alberta Alcohol and
Drug Abuse Commission (AADAC)
Alcohol, tobacco and illicit drug use costs the Alberta economy an estimated
$4.4 billion per year. If left untreated, substance use and gambling problems in the workplace
contribute to:
- Unsafe work practices, accidents and increased risk of injury
- Depression, stress, reduced morale and other emotional problems
- Increased absenteeism, higher workers' compensation and insurance costs
- Alcohol- and drug-related illness
Employers are learning there are steps they can take to prevent substance abuse
issues in the workplace. Thinking Outside the Cup explores upstream prevention in the workplace.
| 11:15 - 11:30 |
Networking Break |
11:15 - 11:30 |
11:30 - 12:30
Treading on Solid Ground When Separating Performance from Disability
Liz Scott, Principal, Organizational Solutions
- How to identify medicalization of claims
- Separating performance issues from disability
- Encouraging management to intervene early with performance and disability evaluations
- How to measure competency when disability is substantiated
| 12:30 - 1:30 |
Luncheon Break |
12:30 - 1:30 |
1:30 - 2:30
Non-Medical Barriers to Healthy and Timely Return to Work
Melanie Goroniuk, Health Promotion and WorkLife Services, University of
Alberta
- Keeping employees engaged with the workplace while on leave
- Impact of organizational culture on employee health and willingness to return to work
- Addressing the stigma related to mental illness
- Conflict with a boss or a co-worker as a barrier preventing a timely return when medically
ready
- Overcoming the stigma of a long-term disbility: that you are seriously and severely disabled
and unable to successfully return the workplace
- Why employees might deny their need for accommodation and how to address it
- Reducing the duration of absences while avoiding "presenteeism"
| 2:30 - 2:45 |
Networking Break |
2:30 - 2:45 |
2:45 - 3:45
Access to Medical Information: Balancing the Worker’s Right to Privacy against
the Employer’s Need to Know
Kelly Nicholson, Associate, Field LLP
- What information the employer is entitled to request in order to address accommodation
- Can an employer direct an employee to a medical practitioner of the employer’s choice?
- Reasonable limitations on a worker’s right to privacy as defined by law
- Addressing any potential conflict between the employee’s physician and management’s physician
3:45 - 4:45
Considering Issues of Accommodation During Harassment Investigations
David Ray, Senior Vice President, Security and Investigations, Grant
Thornton LLP
- Disabilities of the respondent that may have led to the complaint
- Handling potential accommodation issues in the course of investigative interviews
- Dealing with harassment complaints as a result of failure to accommodate
- Use of medical and addiction experts in the course of the investigation
- Considering discipline and other recommendations at the end of the investigation
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