Disability rights

Workers have a right to have disabilities accommodated by their employer. It might include changes to the work environment, and being flexible with tasks, assignments, schedules, and other working terms. CUPE supports workers with disabilities by negotiating language on short-term disability, long-term disability, workers’ compensation top-up, occupational health and safety, and reinforcing the duty to accommodate.

Checklist

Virtual meetings accessibility checklist

Our power as a union depends on the active participation of our members. That’s why it’s so important that we ensure meetings are accessible to everyone, including persons with disabilities.

Accessibility isn’t something that can be tacked on to a meeting at the last minute. It needs to be a central part of the planning process. This checklist is designed to help CUPE locals take an accessibility-first approach and create virtual meetings that are as inclusive and welcoming as possible.

Woman with headphones in a meeting

Fact sheet

Health and safety for workers with disabilities

Employers have a responsibility to provide a safe workplace to all their workers. For workers with a disability, employers may have to take extra steps to meet this responsibility. Just as the employer has a duty to accommodate the particular needs of a worker with a disability (for example, by modifying their workspace or equipment) the employer is also required to ensure that the workplace health and safety program accommodates the needs of that worker as well. The fact is, planning and implementing a health and safety program for workers with disabilities will result in a greater level of safety for all workers.

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Disability rights fact sheets

Disability rights: fact sheet on what is a disability?

A disability is typically defined as a health condition or problem that has a degree of permanence and impairs one’s ability to carry out day-to-day activities. A disability is created when this impairment comes up against a disabling environment. A disability is also shaped by physical, institutional and social barriers, including attitudes and assumptions about differences and impairments.

Disability rights: fact sheet on what is the duty to accommodate?

The duty to accommodate is a broad equality concept that applies to all grounds of discrimination covered under human rights legislation and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Disability rights: fact sheet explains full scope of the duty to accommodate

Employers are required by law to accommodate workers with disabilities. But how far do they have to go? Pretty damn far. CUPE’s latest fact sheet spells out many of the ways workers can be accommodated, from modifying the work environment, to retraining and more.

Disability rights: fact sheet on bargaining

Your local union has a key role to play in supporting disability rights, including the right to be accommodated at work. Your union can take a number of steps to ensure that all members understand their workplace rights and employers’ obligations relating to a disability.

Duty to accommodate: A checklist for collective agreement language

This document provides a checklist of ways to advance accommodation rights through the collective agreement.

equality-history-timeline

Breaking barriers: CUPE’s human rights history

CUPE has a proud history of championing human rights in our union, our workplaces and our communities. Through the human rights history project, we’ve traced our role in key human rights struggles over the years, in Canada and internationally.

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