MK Disability Lawyers partner Leanne Goldstein was honoured to be featured in an article recently by Legal Matters about how substance abuse should be seen from a place of empathy. Please see an excerpt reprinted below, and visit the Legal Matters website to read the full article.
Employee alcohol and substance abuse may be a disability that needs to be treated and not merely seen as a reason for punishment, says Toronto and Markham-area disability lawyer Leanne Goldstein.
Goldstein, a partner at MK Disability Lawyers, says many people do not think of consulting a disability lawyer when their employment is threatened or they are fired due to workplace absenteeism, poor performance or interpersonal challenges that can result from alcohol or drug dependency.
“In the employment realm, the focus is often on an employee’s poor performance. But sometimes at the root of the poor performance issue is alcohol or substance abuse,” she tells LegalMattersCanada.ca. “And, unfortunately, it is not uncommon that when employers actually find out that people are abusing alcohol or drugs, they use it as a way to create a punitive scenario when it really should be considered in the context of whether it might be an illness or
disability. Considered in this context, there is an obligation on the employer to accommodate the employee where appropriate and not to discriminate against them or terminate their employment on the basis of disability.a
To read the full article, please click here.
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