FEDERAL

Supreme Court: Eight Years of Accommodation Attempts Is Enough
A Hydro-Québec worker missed 960 days of work over seven and-a-half years as a result of mental illness and various physical ailments. HQ tried repeatedly to accommodate her but fired her after her last absence reached five months. A Québec court ruled that HQ didn’t meet its duty to accommodate the employee, but the Supreme Court of Canada dismissed the grievance. If an employer tried to accommodate and the worker is still incapable of working, undue hardship has been reached and the employer no longer has to accommodate the worker. The Court noted that HQ had made significant attempts to accommodate the worker and her excessive absenteeism still continued for almost eight years. And her doctors didn’t expect any improvement [Hydro-Québec v. Syndicat des employé-e-s de techniques professionnelles et de bureau d'Hydro-Québec, section locale 2000 (SCFP-FTQ), [2008] S.C.J. No. 44, July 17, 2008].