So, something the Union has done for members lately!! PSAC/CEIU wins important case for worker with disabilities .PSAC’s Canada Employment and Immigration Union component recently won an important victory on behalf of a worker with disabilities who was laid off in 2012 under the government’s workforce adjustment program. The Public Service Staffing Tribunal ordered that Claudette Besner be reinstated, after CEIU was able to prove that she was laid off because the government failed to properly accommodate her. Besner was a long-term employee at Human Resources and Skills Development Canada at the time of the lay-off. Because she has a hearing impairment, an anxiety disorder and environmental sensitivities, she had been granted permission to work from home. But Besner encountered many problems as a result of her employer’s botched attempts to accommodate her. The office equipment she was given didn’t work properly. She found herself assigned to work with a variety of supervisors on several different projects. This made for a disorganized work environment. She found it difficult to participate in group meetings because of her disabilities. Unfair process As a result of departmental cut-backs in 2012, Besner was required to participate in a selection for retention or lay-off (SERLO) process to determine whether she or another candidate would be laid off. The SERLO process consisted of an initial screening of qualifications, a written exam, and a reference check. Besner received the highest score on the assessment and the written exam. However she scored poorly in the reference portion of the assessment. She was selected for lay-off based on this reference alone. The employer claimed she was unreliable because her attendance was “difficult to monitor” as a teleworker. They called the quality of her work unreliable, which was primarily because she wasn’t provided with adequate training, and wasn’t allowed time to master any skills as her supervisors changed her work assignments over and over again. The employer claimed that Besner lacked interpersonal skills because she spoke too loudly, sent too many emails, struggled with her patch-work training, expressed frustration when her office equipment malfunctioned, asked too many questions and did not seem to participate fully in team events. Unreasonable assessment The Tribunal found that the complainant’s disabilities were a factor in the assessment of interpersonal skills and reliability. They also found that the employer did not provide any reasonable non-discriminatory explanation for the poor references. As a result, Tribunal chair Nathalie Daigle concluded that the department had engaged in a discriminatory practice, constituting an abuse of authority under the Public Service Employment Act. The Tribunal ordered that the respondent’s decision to lay off the complainant be set aside and that the respondent pay the complainant $2,000 in compensation. Important decision This decision is significant for a variety of reasons. Besner’s story reveals dramatic flaws in the department’s accommodation practices and it shows how members with disabilities can be easily disadvantaged in selection processes. It also reinforces that the employer must make every effort to address workplace barriers and accommodate disabled employees to the point of undue hardship. PSAC and CEIU will continue to fight for members with disabilities. Workplace accommodations must give members every possibility of success, and selection processes must be designed to ensure people with disabilities have a fair chance.
Posted on: Fri, 14 Mar 2014 15:46:25 +0000
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