Managing Attendance, Accommodating Disability:
An integrated approach
Pre-Conference Workshop

Presented by Lancaster House

Monday, November 22, 2010
Full-Day Interactive Session
9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.

The Lord Nelson Hotel & Suites
1515 South Park Street, Halifax, NS B3J 2L2

The implementation of an attendance management policy can be an effective way to remedy workplace absenteeism. However, the right of employers to demand that their employees attend work is circumscribed by employees' rights to be dealt with reasonably and to have their disabilities accommodated to the point of undue hardship. This full-day workshop will examine the tests adjudicators apply in assessing the legal validity of an attendance management program and will help you to navigate human rights and privacy issues when negotiating and responding to attendance management issues in the workplace.

• Establishing an Attendance Management Program: In what circumstances are attendance management programs appropriate and what elements do they typically contain?  What factors will arbitrators generally consider in determining whether an attendance management policy is valid? What conditions may be imposed by attendance management programs? Abstinence? Counselling? Treatment?
• Medical Information: What provisions should be included in an attendance management policy requiring employees to produce medical certificates and medical information? How should the policy address the requirements to maintain the confidentiality of employee medical information? With whom can the employee's medical information be shared?
• Culpable versus Non-Culpable Absenteeism and the Duty to Accommodate: What distinctions should attendance management programs make between culpable and non-culpable conduct (especially where, as with absenteeism due to alcoholism, the conduct may be a hybrid of both)?
• Discharge and Discipline:  As a term of the contract, employees are expected to perform the essential duties of their job. At what point can employers take the position that, due to excessive absenteeism, workers are no longer meeting this expectation?  When can an employee be discharged for non-culpable absenteeism? At what point is the point of "undue hardship" reached? What procedures does an employer have to follow – e.g. notice – prior to discharging an employee for excessive absenteeism?