THE EMPLOYERS' EDGE
Is your Workplace Ready for AODA?
Practice Areas:
Human Rights
On June 13, 2005, the Ontario government passed the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (“AODA”). The main goal of this legislation is to make Ontario a more inclusive and accessible province by 2025. Another important objective of the legislation is to ensure that organizations are taking proactive measures, such as developing formalized practices and procedures, to address issues of accessibility and inclusiveness for persons with disabilities in the workplace.
Recently, on June 3, 2011, the Ontario government released the second regulation under AODA, the Integrated Accessibility Regulation. This regulation consolidates three accessibility standards: Information and Communications, Employment and Transportation.
With respect to the Employment Standards portion of the Integrated Regulation, employers should be aware that significant administrative obligations will be imposed on employers. Specifically, the Integrated Regulation will require employers to provide an “accessible workplace” for employees with disabilities through all phases of the employment cycle, including the following:
Provide accommodations to persons with disabilities during the recruitment process;
Provide information to persons with disabilities in accessible formats upon request;
Develop individualized accommodation plans for individuals with disabilities;
Develop documented procedures for employees returning to work from a disability related leave of absence;
The accommodation needs of persons with disabilities must be taken into consideration in performance management, career development and redeployment.
Additionally, effective January 1, 2012, all employers across Ontario will be required to provide employees with individualized workplace emergency response information. For further details regarding this requirement, please refer to our blog posted on June 16, 2011.
Another important component of the Integrated Accessibility Regulation that was added to this regulation following the public consultation period, is the requirement for obligated organizations to provide human rights training, as it pertains to persons with disabilities, to all of its employees and volunteers, all persons who participate in developing the organization’s policies, and all other persons who provide goods, services or facilities on behalf of the organization.
Compliance with this new regulation varies widely depending on the type and size of the employer or organization. Generally, however, the compliance time frames for public sector organizations with fifty or more employees will be January 1, 2014, and January 1, 2015 for public sector organizations with less than fifty employees.
For large private sector employers and not-for-profit organization with more than fifty employees, the deadline for compliance has been set for January 1, 2016.
Smaller private sector employers and not-for-profit organizations with less than fifty employees must be in compliance with the new regulation by January 1, 2017. It is also important to note that small employers with less than fifty employees will be exempt from many of the regulation’s requirements.
As you can see, the new standards developed under AODA will require employers to formalize and take a proactive approach in addressing issues related to providing an accessible and inclusive environment for persons with disabilities. The standards will also require employers to make significant investments in employee training and developing formalized policies, procedures and processes.
Given the imminent compliance deadline for providing employees with emergency response information as noted above, employers should, as soon as possible, commence reviews of their policies, procedures and practices in order to determine the steps required to ensure compliance with this requirement.
While the compliance dates for many of the other requirements are not imminent, employers would be well advised to consider how they intend to implement the obligations on a go-forward basis. The lawyers at CCP are available to discuss your legal obligations under the new legislation and to assist in meeting your accessibility compliance deadlines.
Please Note: This blog has been prepared as an informational service for our clients and other interested parties. It is not intended to constitute legal advice, a complete statement of the law or opinion on any subject. Although we endeavour to ensure the accuracy of the content, no one should act upon the information provided without a thorough examination of the law after the facts of a specific situation are fully considered.