10.6 Summary
The field of disability management encompasses disability prevention, accommodation, and recovery. A complete disability management program serves to meet employers’ statutory obligations to prevent and accommodate disabilities created by occupational health and safety, human rights, and workers’ compensation legislation. Such programs can also minimize the cost of injuries and disabilities borne by employers, primarily by returning workers to productive work as quickly as possible.
Check Your Knowledge
Discussion Questions
- What causes an impairment to become a disability? What does this tell us about the role of the workplace in disability management?
- How can employers meet their duty to accommodate?
- How can employers work to prevent disabilities in the workplace?
- What is the part of the employer in a return to work program?
- Explain undue hardship as it pertains to the duty to accommodate.
Exercise
- Go online and identify the legislative requirements in your jurisdiction that require employers to accommodate workers with disabilities. In a short essay of 200 words, explain how a worker would go about enforcing those rights in your jurisdiction.
- Pretend that you are an HR practitioner tasked with developing an accommodation for a warehouse worker based on the following scenario:
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- The worker’s job has three components: (1) lifting materials on and off a skid, (2) moving materials around the warehouse using the skid, and (3) recording such movements and performing periodic inventory.
- The worker is unable to lift materials because of a disability but can perform the other tasks. It is unknown how long the worker will be unable to perform the lifting component.
- There are five other workers in the warehouse performing the same job. Each warehouse worker performs all three tasks and each is busy all of the time. There is also a supervisor who monitors performance and resolves problems.
- The injured worker is personally unpopular and there is skepticism among the other workers about whether his disability is real.
Notes:
1 Brennan, R. (2015, January 31). Meet the man injured Ontario workers ‘love to hate.’ Toronto Star. http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2015/01/31/ meet-the-man-injured-ontario-workers-love-to-hate.html
2 Ibid.
3 Government of Canada. (2011). Fundamentals of disability management. Ottawa: Author. http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/psm-fpfm/ve/dee/dmi-igi/funfon/intro-eng.asp
4 Stone, S. (2008). Resisting an illness label: Disability, impairment and illness. In P. Moss & K. Teghtsoonian (Eds.), Contesting illness: Processes and practice (pp. 201–217). Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
5 Tompa, E., de Oliveira, C., Dolinschi, R., & Irvin, E. (2008). A systematic review of disability management interventions with economic evaluations. Journal of Occupational Rehabilitation, 18(1), 16–26.
6 Manitoba Human Rights Commission. (2010). Reasonable accommodation. http://www.manitobahumanrights.ca/publications/guidelines/ reasonable_accommodation.html
7 Beach, J., Ford, G., & Cherry, N. (2006). Final report: A literature review of the role of alcohol and drugs in contributing to work-related injury. Edmonton: University of Alberta, Department of Public Health Sciences.
8 Ontario Human Rights Commission. (2015). Drug and alcohol testing: Basic principles. Toronto: Author. http://www.ohrc.on.ca/en/policy-drug-andalcohol-testing/drug-and-alcohol-testing-basic-principles
9 Dionne v. Commission scolaire des Patriotes, 2014 SCC 3. http://www.canlii. org/en/ca/scc/doc/2014/2014scc33/2014scc33.html
10 Alberta Human Rights Commission. (2013). Interpretative bulletin: Duty to accommodate. Edmonton: Author.
11 For more information about NIDMAR, see: https://www.nidmar.ca
12 For more information about Pacific Coast University, see: http://www.pcuwhs.ca
13 Brennan, R. (2015, January 31). Meet the man injured Ontario workers ‘love to hate.’
14 MacEachen, E., Ferrier, S., Kosny, A., & Chambers, L. (2007). A deliberation on ‘hurt versus harm’ in early-return-to-work policy. Policy and Practice in Health and Safety, 5(2), 41–62.
15 Ibid.
16 Ibid.
