Exclusions on medical grounds – New Procedures for 2008/2009 (09-02)
2009-01-29
Contact person: Marie-Hélène Rony at 613-996-0431
The purpose of this letter is to communicate the new procedures for requesting an exclusion on medical grounds. The Public Service Commission (PSC) would like to remind organizations that the authority to grant exclusions on medical grounds rests with the PSC. If an organization wishes to request an exclusion, it must respect the following procedures.
Procedures for submitting a request for exclusion on medical grounds
Under the Public Service Official Languages Exclusion Approval Order (2005), the PSC may exclude a person with a long-term or recurring physical, mental or learning impairment from having to meet the language requirements of his or her position. However, the organization and the employee must have deployed every effort to ensure that the employee may attain the second official language proficiency required for the position.
To this end, the organization will have to demonstrate to the PSC that the employee who is in a bilingual position, or who is being considered for a bilingual position is unable to attain, through language training, the required second official language proficiency. We would like to specify that an exclusion on medical grounds can only be obtained for a bilingual indeterminate position staffed on a non-imperative basis, and is only valid for the position for which it was approved.
To evaluate requests made for an exclusion on medical grounds, the PSC has signed an agreement with Health Canada and the Canadian Hearing Society to obtain their expertise in assessing an employee's aptitude to learn his or her second official language, should the employee not be able to meet the linguistic requirements of the non-imperative position to which he or she was appointed, or the language requirements of the non-imperative position for which he or she is being considered.
Please note that a request for an exclusion on medical grounds should be a last resort, once all reasonable accommodations related to learning and evaluation, made in accordance with the Policy on the Duty to Accommodate Persons with Disabilities in the Federal Public Service, (which came into effect on June 3, 2002), have proven unsuccessful. Note also that organizations submitting a request for an exclusion on medical grounds are responsible for covering all costs related to medical assessments.
Procedures and forms for submitting a request for an exclusion on medical grounds can be found on the PSC Web site.
If you have questions, please contact Marie-Hélène Rony at 613-996-0431.
Sincerely,
Donald Lemaire
Senior Vice-President
Policy Branch