Accommodating Employees at Christmas

Are employers required to accommodate an employee at Christmas?  

Accommodating Employees at Christmas

If an employee requests December 25 off for “family time” or religious events, are those protected grounds under Canadian human rights law?  This arises in industries that stay open 365 days a year, such as hospitals, public transit, variety stores, movie theatres and some restaurants.  For those employees working in these industries, can an employee request accommodation to have December 25 off on the grounds of family status or religion? 

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Religious Accommodation & Vaccination – What’s the deal?

In the context of the increasing prevalence of vaccine mandates, employee requests for accommodation on religious grounds are becoming common. Religious beliefs and practices and the resulting accommodation requests can be varied and tricky. Today we will take a look at what employers should know and do about requests for accommodation based on religion. 

What Do Employers Need to Accommodate?

Human rights legislation across Canada provides employees with protections from discrimination on the basis of creed or religious beliefs or practices. Employers must accommodate up to the point of undue hardship. 

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Religious Accommodation in the Workplace

Merry Christmas! Wait. What? Can we still say that in public?  Why yes, we can, but not at the cost of excluding all other religions in the workplace. For those that do not celebrate Christian holidays (and/or secular commercial holidays derived from Christian traditions), focusing only on Christian traditions can feel like exclusion. It’s hard to feel like you belong if you don’t share similar traditions. Taken too far, and the exclusion can evolve into…

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