Conflicts between the accommodation of disabled workers and seniority rights

grantor: University of TorontoThe purpose of human rights legislation is to ensure equality of opportunity without discrimination. For disabled workers, this means that employers (and trade unions) are required to accommodate their disability-related needs in the workplace, unless doing so would cause undue hardship. Workers seek seniority provisions in collective agreements to reduce the potential for managerial arbitrariness in the allocation of scarce work opportunities. When these two principles designed to enhance employees' work opportunities conflict which should prevail? In this thesis I argue that when the accommodation of a disabled worker requires interference with the seniority provisions of a collective agreement, the interference with the seniority principle in and of itself, should not bar the requested accommodation. However, when the actual impact on the affected workers' wording conditions and social and financial well-being is significant, the limit of undue hardship has been reached.LL.M