Employment Law Update: Remote Work Policies and the Evolving Duty to Accommodate

The widespread adoption of hybrid and remote work arrangements has generated a significant body of new human rights jurisprudence, with arbitrators, tribunals, and courts grappling with questions that did not exist three years ago. For employers, the stakes are high: inadequate policies and inflexible approaches to accommodation requests are generating costly litigation and reputational damage. This Legal Update reviews key decisions from the past 18 months and identifies the emerging principles that employers must internalize when designing and implementing remote work policies. Topics covered include: the scope of the duty to accommodate in a hybrid work context; individualized assessment requirements; undue hardship analysis; mental health accommodation; and productivity monitoring and employee privacy. Priya N. Sharma of the Employment & Labour practice group regularly advises employers on these issues and is available to assist with policy review and accommodation assessments.