Family Status Accommodation

About family status

Section 5 of the Human Rights Code of Ontario gives every employee “right to equal treatment with respect to employment without discrimination” on a list of grounds—one of which is family status.  

Family status refers to a person’s child-parent relationship. Family status protection is available to biological children and parents, and to those who are in a child/parent-like role.

When does the duty to accommodate family status arise? 

With respect to family status, accommodation is usually associated with caregiving needs (typically to parents or to children).

The duty to accommodate will arise when an employment rule or requirement disadvantages an employee with family status caregiving responsibilities in a non-trivial way. For example, a rule or requirement to work core business hours from 9 am to 5 pm may disadvantage a single parent employee who must pick up a child from daycare at 5 pm.  

It is important to keep in mind that not every circumstance related to family status will give rise to a duty to accommodate, and that the duty to accommodate is very fact-dependent. The purpose of accommodation is to accommodate a need, not a preference. Some needs will remain stable over a period of time, while others may arise on an emergency basis.

Family status accommodation options

There are many options available to support your family status needs in the workplace.  

It’s important to match an accommodation request to your specific needs.

Your Employer is not permitted to insist on a “one-size-fits-all” approach—they must consider the unique needs of each employee.  

At the same time, employees are not entitled to the “ideal” accommodation—you must be flexible and prepared to accept a reasonable arrangement that nevertheless meets your needs.  

You still need to explore all other options to try to mitigate the impact of family status needs. It is important that you are able to demonstrate that you have exhausted all other options to no avail.

Once an accommodation is in place, it can be adjusted. What is reasonable now may no longer be reasonable as circumstances evolve or as your needs change.  

A few ideas to get started:  

• alternative work arrangements, such as compressed work weeks, flexible work hours, and/or telecommuting;

• temporarily working reduced hours and duties or job sharing;  

• using partial or whole credits (e.g, vacation, overtime) to attend to caregiving responsibilities on an ad-hoc basis;  

• requesting a leave of absence

Please see our fact sheet on leaves of absence, and specifically the sections on family responsibility leave, family caregiver leave, family medical leave, and critical illness leave.  

If you reduce your work hours but continue to need your full pay, you will need to “top-up” your pay with accumulated credits. 

You may also be eligible for income relief during a leave of absence. See below for more information.  

Potential income assistance

If your income is affected by a leave of absence, you may be eligible for some income assistance through Employment Insurance (EI), including the Canada Recovery Benefit, the Canada Recovery Caregiving Benefit, and caregiver and compassionate care benefits.  

How to request family status accommodation 

1. Write down what has taken place to date that you believe to be relevant to your situation. This will help you organize your thoughts and assist a Workplace Representative, should you need their help.  

• Include information about the nature and significance of your care-giving obligation, other supports you may or may not have available, other avenues you have explored and exhausted to meet the need, the anticipated duration of the need, and any anticipated impact there might be if the need is not accommodated etc.
• Write your account out in such detail that someone who knows nothing about your or your workplace would be able to read your document, and understand who the people involved are, the context and importance of what was said or done, and be able to bring themselves up to speed quickly.  

• You should also gather all relevant documentation.  

2. Reach out to your manager about having a conversation related to accommodation and the reason for it. If you don’t make this request via email, be sure to take personal notes and record the date.  

3. Speak with your manager.  

• During the conversation, identify the challenge(s), and the accommodation you are seeking. You may be presented with an alternative or be expected to talk through another possible solution.   

• Your Employer is also entitled to ask detailed questions about family status matters, other options you have considered, and available alternatives.  

• If you feel you might like support for this conversation, you have the right to have a Workplace Representative join you for any meeting with your manager related to a workplace accommodation.  

• If your manager will not discuss accommodations with you, or you feel your accommodation has been unfairly denied, please contact an AMAPCEO Workplace Representative immediately. 

If you have questions or need assistance

Please contact an AMAPCEO Workplace Representative near you. They do not have to be in your Ministry.

Workplace Representatives are trained union members who have volunteered to confidentially assist members like you in the workplace. They should be your first point of contact in seeking information and representation with an issue at work.

Your Workplace Representative may ask you to use the union’s secure web-based system, RADAR, to provide details about your situation. RADAR will help you and your Workplace Representative keep track of things without the privacy concerns that could come from using the Employer’s email system.