Resources: Human Rights
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Grasping at Straws: Claiming Discrimination in the Face of Clear Misconduct
October 16, 2024
In Bartender v. Finale Entertainment Inc., 2024 BCHRT 155, the complainant, a former bartender with the respondent nightclub, filed a human rights complaint after his employment was terminated without cause.
The complainant, who identified as Caucasian or white, alleged that his employment was terminated in order to hire a Chinese employee. To support his allegation of discrimination, the complainant relied on the fact that, on the same day the respondent terminated his employment, a Chinese worker started working in his place.
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Toxic Work Environment and Investigation of Concern? That Still Might Not Be Enough to Warrant a Discrimination Claim
September 27, 2024
In Thomas v. Signals Design Group, 2024 BCHRT 135, the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal dismissed a complaint alleging discrimination on the basis of sex. The complainant alleged she received radically different treatment as compared to her male counterparts and had to resign from employment because of the toxic work environment.
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Health Spending Accounts Not Sufficient to Meet ESA Sick Leave Requirements
September 17, 2024
A British Columbia arbitral decision is the most recent in a developing line of authority cautioning BC employers that sick days conferred under the Employment Standards Act, R.S.B.C. 1996, c. 113 (the “ESA”) may be qualitatively different than sick leave benefits under a collective agreement.
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Good Accommodation Gone Wrong
July 10, 2024
In United Nurses of Alberta v. Alberta Health Services (MacKinnon Grievance), [2023] A.G.A.A. No. 10 (Asbell), the majority of an arbitration board awarded $10,000 in injury to dignity (human rights) damages for an employer’s failure to consistently and proactively accommodate a neurodivergent employee.
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Bots in the HR Department: Recruitment in the Age of Generative AI
March 13, 2024
Although artificial intelligence (AI) tools have been available to human resources (HR) departments for many years, the November 2022 release of OpenAI’s ChatGPT prompted HR professionals and their legal advisors to take a fresh look at how generative AI chatbots can support and improve HR work, including recruitment.
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Arbitrators Consider Vaccination Policies
December 7, 2021
In the past few weeks, arbitrators have begun to issue decisions considering the reasonableness of COVID-19 vaccination policies in unionized workplaces. The following three decisions out of Ontario provide some key takeaways for employers.
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ESA: Five Days Paid Personal Illness or Injury (Sick) Leave, as of January 1, 2022
November 25, 2021
On May 28, 2021 we issued an update regarding Bill 13 Employment Standards Amendment Act (No. 2), 2021 (“Bill 13”), which amended the British Columbia Employment Standards Act (the “ESA”). Bill 13 added temporary paid COVID leave (ending December 31, 2021) and added paid leave for personal illness or injury commencing January 1, 2022 (“Paid Sick Leave”), with the amount of days to be determined.
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Vaccination Status and the “New Normal”
August 13, 2021
As governments and businesses seek to avoid closures that have so heavily impacted the economy and everyday life, many are looking to vaccine passports and/or considering mandatory vaccination in the workplace to facilitate a return to “normal” operations.
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The BC Human Rights Commissioner Weighs in on Mandatory COVID-19 Vaccination Policies
August 6, 2021
As vaccination rates increase, and the province continues to progress through each phase of its reopening plan, one of the biggest questions facing employers is whether to implement a mandatory vaccination policy for employees and, in some cases, customers. This is a complex and highly context-specific question that engages human rights issues, privacy issues, and workplace safety considerations.
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