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Workplace Accommodation Request — Employee Side (Canada)
A spoken request for accommodation is easy to lose in an inbox; a written one starts a legal process. Canadian human rights law — every provincial code and, for federal employers, the Canadian Human Rights Act — obliges employers to accommodate disability, family status and religion to the point of undue hardship, and the duty has a procedural half: the employer must genuinely engage with the request. Our Canadian template writes the request that triggers it properly — the ground framed on the right legal test, functional limitations instead of diagnosis, a solutions menu with a trial period, and the paper trail started from line one.
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Workplace Accommodation Request
Request Under Human Rights Legislation — Disability · June 10, 2026
Aisha N. Mahmoud
512 Wellington Crescent, Winnipeg MB R3M 0A1
+1 (204) 555-0166
aisha.mahmoud@email.ca
June 10, 2026
Mark Stefanyk
Director, People and Culture
Prairie Analytics Group Inc.
Prairie Analytics Group Inc.
REQUEST FOR WORKPLACE ACCOMMODATION — DISABILITY
Requested from July 6, 2026
Dear Mark Stefanyk,
I am writing to formally request a workplace accommodation on the ground of disability, under the human rights legislation in force in Manitoba. I value my role at Prairie Analytics Group Inc. and remain committed to performing it fully — this request is about how the work is arranged, not whether it gets done. Please treat this letter as the start of the accommodation process.
I am writing to formally request a workplace accommodation on the ground of disability, under the human rights legislation in force in Manitoba. I value my role at Prairie Analytics Group Inc. and remain committed to performing it fully — this request is about how the work is arranged, not whether it gets done. Please treat this letter as the start of the accommodation process.
1.
MY ROLE AND CURRENT ARRANGEMENT
Position: Data Quality Analyst
Employer: Prairie Analytics Group Inc.
Current working arrangement: Full-time, five days on site, 8:30 to 4:30, in the downtown Winnipeg office
Jurisdiction: Manitoba (provincial human rights legislation)
Employer: Prairie Analytics Group Inc.
Current working arrangement: Full-time, five days on site, 8:30 to 4:30, in the downtown Winnipeg office
Jurisdiction: Manitoba (provincial human rights legislation)
2.
THE DUTY TO ACCOMMODATE
Disability is a protected ground under the human rights legislation in force in Manitoba, and with this request the employer’s duty to accommodate is engaged: workplace rules, schedules and arrangements must be adjusted to the point of undue hardship. Undue hardship is a high threshold: some hardship, cost or disruption must be absorbed before the duty is exhausted, and ordinary business inconvenience does not meet it. The duty has a procedural component as well as a substantive one — the employer must genuinely investigate the request and the options, and a failure to engage with the process is itself a breach.
3.
THE ACCOMMODATION REQUESTED
The accommodation I request is: A hybrid arrangement of three days working from home per week, an ergonomic sit-stand workstation for my on-site days, and flexibility to attend medical appointments every third Thursday morning, with the time made up the same week.
I ask that it take effect from July 6, 2026, or such earlier date as can be arranged. I am open to discussing how this is implemented, and to reasonable alternatives that meet the same need.
I ask that it take effect from July 6, 2026, or such earlier date as can be arranged. I am open to discussing how this is implemented, and to reasonable alternatives that meet the same need.
4.
THE GROUND, PROPERLY FRAMED
This request is grounded in disability. The legal framework does not require me to disclose a diagnosis: what matters — and what I provide — are my functional limitations and the workplace barriers they meet. Functional limitations relevant to my role: I have flare-related limits on sustained sitting (no more than 45 minutes at a stretch), significantly reduced stamina on days following treatment, and a need to control my physical environment during flare periods. I remain fully able to perform all the analytical, reporting and meeting responsibilities of my role.
How the current arrangement creates the barrier: The five-day on-site pattern places the hardest physical days in the office, where workstation and commute compound the limitations; my output on home-working days during the March pilot was at or above target.
How the current arrangement creates the barrier: The five-day on-site pattern places the hardest physical days in the office, where workstation and commute compound the limitations; my output on home-working days during the March pilot was at or above target.
5.
SOLUTIONS AND ALTERNATIVES — A LADDER, NOT AN ULTIMATUM
Accommodation is a search for what works, and I am putting options on the table rather than a single demand:
Option 1. Hybrid: three home days (Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday) — what changes: Location only — same hours, same meetings by video — cost / impact: No cost; the team already runs hybrid meetings
Option 2. Sit-stand workstation for on-site days — what changes: One equipment purchase for my desk — cost / impact: One-time cost, typically a few hundred dollars
Option 3. Compressed scheduling around treatment Thursdays — what changes: Time shifted within the same week — cost / impact: No net hours lost
I propose that the preferred option run as a trial period of four to eight weeks, with a review at the end — a trial costs little, generates real evidence, and avoids deciding the question on assumptions.
Consistent with Central Okanagan School District No 23 v Renaud, [1992] 2 SCR 970, I will cooperate fully in this search: I will consider any reasonable proposal that meets the need, provide the information the process properly requires, and work with you on implementation.
Further: If a different mix of days better suits sprint ceremonies, I am happy to adjust — the need is for three non-consecutive home days, not those specific dates.
Option 1. Hybrid: three home days (Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday) — what changes: Location only — same hours, same meetings by video — cost / impact: No cost; the team already runs hybrid meetings
Option 2. Sit-stand workstation for on-site days — what changes: One equipment purchase for my desk — cost / impact: One-time cost, typically a few hundred dollars
Option 3. Compressed scheduling around treatment Thursdays — what changes: Time shifted within the same week — cost / impact: No net hours lost
I propose that the preferred option run as a trial period of four to eight weeks, with a review at the end — a trial costs little, generates real evidence, and avoids deciding the question on assumptions.
Consistent with Central Okanagan School District No 23 v Renaud, [1992] 2 SCR 970, I will cooperate fully in this search: I will consider any reasonable proposal that meets the need, provide the information the process properly requires, and work with you on implementation.
Further: If a different mix of days better suits sprint ceremonies, I am happy to adjust — the need is for three non-consecutive home days, not those specific dates.
6.
MEDICAL AND PERSONAL INFORMATION — WHAT THE PROCESS REQUIRES
The accommodation process entitles the employer to the information needed to accommodate — and no more. For a disability-related request, that means confirmation of a need, my functional limitations and restrictions, prognosis for duration, and what adjustments are indicated. It does not extend to my diagnosis, treatment details or complete medical file. That boundary follows from the test the Supreme Court of Canada set in British Columbia (Public Service Employee Relations Commission) v BCGSEU, [1999] 3 SCR 3 (Meiorin): a workplace standard survives only if it is rationally connected to the job, adopted in good faith, and reasonably necessary — which requires the employer to assess this employee individually, not to collect records. The threshold the employer must meet to refuse is undue hardship, not impossibility, assessed on evidence (Hydro-Québec v Syndicat, 2008 SCC 43).
Supporting confirmation: a note from my health practitioner confirming the need and my functional limitations is enclosed with this request.
Scope note: The enclosed note from my treating practitioner confirms the functional limitations and the recommended arrangements without disclosing diagnosis, in line with what the process requires.
If further information is required, please put the request in writing, limited to functional abilities and accommodation-relevant facts, and I will arrange a response from my practitioner on that scope.
Supporting confirmation: a note from my health practitioner confirming the need and my functional limitations is enclosed with this request.
Scope note: The enclosed note from my treating practitioner confirms the functional limitations and the recommended arrangements without disclosing diagnosis, in line with what the process requires.
If further information is required, please put the request in writing, limited to functional abilities and accommodation-relevant facts, and I will arrange a response from my practitioner on that scope.
7.
PROCESS, TIMELINE AND NEXT STEPS
I ask for a written response within 14 days: either confirming the accommodation and its start date, proposing an alternative that meets the need, or — if the position is that accommodation is not possible — setting out the undue-hardship analysis with the evidence behind it. In the meantime, I ask that we treat this as an open, interactive process: I am available to meet, and small interim adjustments can bridge the gap while the request is assessed.
I am confident we can resolve this internally; the formal route through the provincial human rights tribunal or commission exists, but a good-faith process here makes it unnecessary.
I am confident we can resolve this internally; the formal route through the provincial human rights tribunal or commission exists, but a good-faith process here makes it unnecessary.
8.
COOPERATION AND RESPONSE
I remain fully committed to my role and to making this work for both sides. Please respond in writing, and please keep this request and any supporting information confidential, shared only with those who need it to assess the accommodation. I am available to discuss the request at your convenience. All my rights under the applicable human rights legislation are reserved.
YOURS SINCERELY,
Aisha N. Mahmoud
Employee
Date: ____________________
EMPLOYEE
Aisha N. Mahmoud
Date: ____________________
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What Is a Workplace Accommodation Request?
It is the written instrument that converts a need into a legal duty. In Canada, discrimination in employment is prohibited on grounds including disability, family status and religion — by the Human Rights Code in Ontario, the Human Rights Code in British Columbia, the Alberta Human Rights Act, their counterparts in every province, and the Canadian Human Rights Act for federally regulated employers. Attached to each prohibition is the duty to accommodate: schedules, locations, equipment and rules must bend to the point of undue hardship. In Ontario, s.17 of the Code names the only three factors that count — cost, outside sources of funding, and health and safety. Business inconvenience is not on the list.
The standards come from the Supreme Court of Canada. Meiorin set the unified test: a workplace standard that screens someone out survives only if it is rationally connected to the job, adopted in good faith, and reasonably necessary — which requires showing this employee cannot be accommodated short of undue hardship. Hydro-Québec confirmed the employer need not prove accommodation impossible, but must prove undue hardship on evidence, individually assessed. And Renaud made accommodation a joint search: the employee must cooperate with reasonable proposals — which is exactly why a request that arrives as an options menu, rather than an ultimatum, is so much harder to refuse.
Framing decides these requests. A disability request that leads with a diagnosis invites medical over-reach; framed on functional limitations — what you can and cannot do, in work terms — it gives the employer what the law allows and nothing more. A childcare request framed as preference gets refused; framed as a substantial care obligation that a work rule seriously interferes with (the standard confirmed in BC's Gibraltar Mines appeal, with the federal Johnstone test for Canadian Human Rights Act employers), it engages the duty. A religious request stands on sincerely held belief — sincerity, not orthodoxy, is the test. The template writes whichever framework fits, and maps the escalation route — provincial tribunal or the Canadian Human Rights Commission — if the process is refused.
What's Covered in This Template
The request is structured the way human rights adjudicators later review it — ground, duty, request, options, information, process — so the paper trail is built from the first page.
Jurisdiction Switch
Provincial human rights code (with Ontario, BC and Alberta named regimes) or the Canadian Human Rights Act for federally regulated employers — selected once, applied throughout.
Three Grounds, Three Tests
Disability on functional limitations; family status on the serious-interference standard (Johnstone for federal employers); religion on sincerely held belief — the matching framework written around your facts.
Undue Hardship Standard
The duty stated with its real threshold: in Ontario, only cost, outside funding and health and safety count (s.17) — and some hardship must be absorbed before the duty is exhausted.
Procedural Duty Trigger
The request puts the employer's process obligation on the record — a refusal without genuine investigation is itself a breach, independent of the merits.
Concrete Request + Start Date
Days, equipment, schedule changes and an effective date — specific requests get decided; vague ones get parked.
Solutions Ladder
An options menu — what each proposal changes and what it costs — that does the employer's analysis for it and forces any refusal to answer option by option.
Trial Period Offer
A four-to-eight-week trial with review: the move that converts speculation about hardship into evidence.
Medical Privacy Boundary
What the employer may request (functional limitations, duration, indicated adjustments) and what it may not (diagnosis, treatment, full records) — stated before the over-ask happens.
Renaud Cooperation Record
Your commitment to the joint search, on the record — the posture adjudicators expect from employees, working for you instead of against you.
Escalation Route Mapped
Response deadline, reprisal protection, and the tribunal route — HRTO, BC Human Rights Tribunal, Alberta Human Rights Commission or the Canadian Human Rights Commission — held in reserve.
How to Create Your Accommodation Request
Five steps from need to formal request.
- 1
Pick Jurisdiction and Ground
Provincial or federal employer; disability, family status or religion — the template selects the legislation and the legal test.
- 2
Describe the Baseline
Your role and current working arrangement — the hours, location and pattern your request would change.
- 3
Make the Request Concrete
Exactly what you are asking for and from when. Specifics are what an employer can approve.
- 4
Frame the Ground (Expert)
Functional limitations without diagnosis, the care obligation with the alternatives you tried, or the sincere practice — plus your options ladder and trial offer.
- 5
Set the Deadline and Send
A 14-day written-response window, the medical boundary stated, and a dated copy kept — the request is now a legal record.
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Legal Considerations
The duty to accommodate is among the most employee-favourable doctrines in Canadian law — when the request is framed to engage it.
This template provides general information for Canadian employees and is not legal advice. If the situation involves an imminent dismissal, a denied long-term disability claim, or an accommodation dispute already in progress, get advice from a human rights or employment lawyer — deadlines for tribunal applications are typically one year. Quebec employees are covered by a separate charter regime not addressed here.
Reviewed for Canadian human rights law
Where the Duty Comes From
Every Canadian jurisdiction prohibits employment discrimination on disability, family status and religion, and reads in the duty to accommodate to undue hardship: the Human Rights Code (Ontario, with the duty express in s.17), the Human Rights Code (BC), the Alberta Human Rights Act, and the Canadian Human Rights Act for federal employers — banks, telecoms, airlines, interprovincial transport. The duty covers rules, schedules, premises and equipment, and it is owed individually: blanket policies are precisely what Meiorin requires employers to look past.
What Undue Hardship Actually Means
The Supreme Court of Canada set the bar high: the employer need not show accommodation is impossible, but must show it cannot accommodate short of undue hardship, on evidence (Hydro-Québec, 2008 SCC 43) — and "undue" concedes that some hardship must be absorbed (Renaud, [1992] 2 SCR 970). Ontario narrows the analysis to cost, outside sources of funding, and health and safety. Morale, preference, customer taste and ordinary inconvenience do not qualify anywhere in Canada.
Family Status — the Moving Front
The tests diverged for a decade and have now mostly converged on substance: federally, Canada (AG) v Johnstone, 2014 FCA 110 still governs (care obligation engaging legal responsibility, reasonable self-accommodation efforts, more-than-trivial interference); BC's Court of Appeal confirmed in Gibraltar Mines (2023) that a serious interference with a substantial family duty suffices — no employer-initiated change required; Ontario's tribunal applies the same substance through Misetich. The template frames provincial requests on serious interference and federal ones on Johnstone.
Medical Information — the Boundary
The employer is entitled to what the accommodation requires: confirmation of a need, functional limitations and restrictions, expected duration, and indicated adjustments. It is not entitled to diagnosis, treatment details or your medical file — the Ontario Human Rights Commission's position, consistent with the individualized assessment Meiorin demands. Stating the boundary in the request protects your privacy and pre-frames any later dispute as employer over-reach.
If the Request Is Refused
A refusal must survive on both fronts — substance (real undue-hardship evidence) and process (a genuine investigation). Failing either, the route is the human rights tribunal: the HRTO in Ontario, the BC Human Rights Tribunal, the Alberta Human Rights Commission, or the Canadian Human Rights Commission federally — generally within one year. Remedies include the accommodation itself, lost wages and general damages. If the employer's answer to the request is termination, that is reprisal territory: see our severance review demand letter for the dismissal side, and our CLC unjust dismissal complaint for federally regulated employees. Where the workplace conduct itself is the problem, our workplace harassment and violence policy template shows the standard employers are held to.
Frequently Asked Questions
Put the Request in Writing — That Is What Starts the Duty
Create your workplace accommodation request in minutes: the right Canadian legislation, the ground framed on the right test, functional limitations instead of diagnosis, a solutions ladder with a trial period, and the escalation route mapped — in formal letter format. Download the PDF free, or unlock Expert for the ground framework, options ladder and medical-privacy boundary.
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