Disabled INAC employee having troubles

Josée Guest, the staff Ombudsman for Indian and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC), first started raising alerts about the way the department deals with employee disability issues in her second annual report in 2003.

As the person designated to help employees struggling with disabling injuries or illnesses—as well as other matters—Guest hears from many INAC employees. As with any large employer, there are many points of friction between management and staff.

The staff Ombudsman's office, created at INAC in 1990, is designed to be an impartial and confidential place where employees can go for advice—or even just to blow off a little steam—if they’re having difficulty at work.

In her 2003 report to the highest-ranking INAC bureaucrat, the deputy minister, Guest wrote “persons with disabilities consulted the staff Ombudsman at a rate higher than their total representation within the department. The Duty to Accommodate Policy should be distributed regularly to help managers, supervisors and staff identify needs.”

The fact that employees dealing with disability issues were involved with Guest at a higher than proportionate rate indicates that the department is not yet on top of the issue.

Two years later, in her 2005 annual report, the staff Ombudsman provided a lot more detail about the nature of the problem.

“Many employees find themselves, for reason out of their control, on long-term disability leave. In order to collect disability insurance (DI), many forms need to be filled and delivered to specific responsibility areas at the appropriate time,” she wrote. “When these time lines are not met it can cause financial worries, such as paybacks and/or reduced income, to an employee who is already in a vulnerable position. It can also cause added stress to an employee returning to work after long-term disability leave. Return to work full-time can be impeded.”

She suggested, at the end of March in 2005, that the department face the problem head on.

“One possible solution in order to be prepared could be to dedicate resources who would be assigned to deal with every aspect of disability leave, from making sure the forms are where they should be when they are needed to integration back into their workplace on the employee’s return to work,” she wrote.

Marianne McLeod, a 33-year-old citizen of the Chippewas of Nawash First Nation, would agree with all of that. The project officer with the advocacy and partnerships section of INAC’s economic development branch at headquarters in the Ottawa region has a condition that causes chronic pain and fatigue that can also disrupt sleep patterns.

It’s a condition that was diagnosed in 1996, three years before she began employment at INAC in April of 1999.
On Aug. 11, 2004, at the request of her director, she was assessed by Health Canada.

“I was declared unfit for work and began short-term disability on the following day, due to fibromyalgia.
Short-term turned into long-term disability. In April of 2005, I was reassessed and told that I needed four to six more months off,” she said.

She returned to work four months later, putting in four hours a day, three days a week under the government’s Graduated Return to Work Program.

“Shortly after returning to work I began to have some problems with my pay,” she said.

For the next six months, she was being either paid for more hours than she worked or found that previous over-payments had been deducted, leaving her with no money to pay bills.

“During 2005, my pays they went up and down like a roller coaster from as little as $324 gross to as much as $1,944 gross at times. It was very stressful and extremely hard to gauge my finances, as well as the concerns of DI reporting and my T-4 come time for 2005 taxes,” she said.

“At the end of 2005, I had been overpaid by the department for a total of $4,000 gross,” she said.

Then in November of 2006, a deadline for filing a routine medical report was missed and the insurance company cut off her disability insurance and she was forced to apply to return to work full time.

Problems persisted, as she became involved in disagreements over what was legitimate time off and what was not.

In March of this year, McLeod retained a lawyer to look at civil remedies for what she calls a “very frustrating and stressful situation.”

“And when you consider that stress is a factor that contributes to my illness, this is just terrible situation,” she said.