Canadian Human Rights Tribunal

Giuseppe Clemente began working for Air Canada in 1984. In 2005, Mr. Clemente hurt his back badly while working as a baggage ramp attendant. The resulting injury meant he couldn’t do that job anymore. He was off work until 2014.

When Mr. Clemente returned to work at Air Canada in 2014, there were limits on what he could do. For example, he couldn’t work too many hours due to pain. Air Canada accommodated Mr. Clemente by changing his hours and adjusting his physical workspace. It assigned him roles where he provided additional support to the staff.

Air Canada tried finding him jobs he could do. He tried working in both the Radio Room and Pillow Room at the Toronto Pearson International Airport. Air Canada did not find him jobs outside of Toronto.

Mr. Clemente slowly returned to work, but he often needed changing accommodations to his job. By December 2015, Air Canada seemed to have grown tired of accommodating Mr. Clemente. It wanted him to take a disability retirement. Mr. Clemente wanted to keep working, but he felt forced to retire. He believes Air Canada didn’t help him enough to keep working.

Mr. Clemente said Air Canada discriminated against him based on his disability.

Air Canada said it accommodated Mr. Clemente but could not keep him in non-essential jobs indefinitely. It said that it was too hard to keep accommodating Mr. Clemente and that doing so was too much to reasonably expect. Air Canada also said Mr. Clemente chose to retire on his own.

After looking at all the facts, the Tribunal found that Air Canada failed to show how continuing to employ Mr. Clemente would have been overly disruptive to Air Canada’s operations. The Tribunal decided that it wasn’t too hard for Air Canada to continue accommodating Mr. Clemente. The Tribunal decided that Air Canada discriminated against Mr. Clemente based on his disability.