Resources: Human Rights

Coronavirus: Information Bulletin for Employers

As of today’s date, January 28, 2020, more than 100 people have died from the Wuhan coronavirus – a novel (new) coronavirus – and more than 4,500 others have been infected.  A warning has been issued to travellers to avoid all non-essential travel to China and cases of infection have been reported in countries other than China, including Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and the United States.

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Not Every Failed Return to Work is a Failure of the Duty to Accommodate

In Gaucher v. Fraser Health Authority and others, 2019 BCHRT 243, the Human Rights Tribunal dismissed without a hearing the human rights complaint of a nurse regarding her attempts to return to work following an extended disability leave.  In reaching that decision, the Tribunal made several helpful comments about the scope of the duty to accommodate and what constitutes harassment under the Human Rights Code.

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Conduct of Transgender Complainant Leads to Dismissal of Complaint of Discrimination in the Provision of Waxing Services

Jessica Yaniv is a transgender woman who filed seven human rights complaints against multiple defendants relating to the denial of waxing services. In five cases, she requested waxing of her scrotum. In two, she requested waxing of her arms or legs. In each case, Ms. Yaniv told the Respondent that she was a transgender woman and the Respondent then refused to wax her.

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Uncertain Changes and a Strained Relationship Do Not Amount to Constructive Dismissal

Reza Baraty alleged he was constructively dismissed from his position with Wellons Canada Corp. (“Wellons”).  He considered: (1) his position to have been eroded to the point where he was no longer a manager; and (2) the work environment to have become intolerable because of bullying and harassment by a co-worker.

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Family Feud: Survey Says BC Test for Family Status Discrimination is Good Law

In a decision issued August 8, 2019, Brian Suen v. Envirocon Environmental Services, ULC et al., 2019 CanLII 73206 (SCC), the Court dismissed the leave application of a human rights complainant who alleged he was subjected to prohibited employment discrimination on the basis of family status (familial obligations), and implicitly approved of the test for family status discrimination developed by the BC Court of Appeal in 2004 and recently reaffirmed in Envirocon Environmental Services, ULC v. Suen, 2019 BCCA 46.

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Father’s Family Status Denied by BC Court of Appeal

With its 2004 Campbell River decision, the BC Court of Appeal articulated the BC test for family status discrimination involving family obligations in the context of employment.  It essentially held that employers cannot impose workplace rules that seriously interfere with the substantial family obligations of its employees, unless doing so would cause the employer undue hardship.

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Combative Conduct in the Workplace and the Duty to Inquire

Tomasz Rutkowski, a unionized painter in the employer’s engineering department, filed a human rights complaint against his employer concerning its treatment of him in dealing with his mental disability.  In Rutkowski v. Westin Bayshore Hotel and another, 2018 BCHRT 235, the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal (the “Tribunal”) dismissed the complaint.

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The Benefits Of Proactive Responses To Complaints Of Workplace Discrimination: Lessons From The Alberta Human Rights Commission

A recent decision out of Alberta[1] details the value of proactive employer responses to claims of workplace discrimination as a defence to human rights complaints.

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B.C. Court of Appeal Unequivocally Affirms Test For Family Status Discrimination

In my opinion, [the concept of family status] cannot be an open-ended concept … for that would have the potential to cause disruption and great mischief in the workplace ….

Whether particular conduct does or does not amount to prima facie discrimination on the basis of family status will depend on the circumstances of each case ….  I think that in the vast majority of situations in which there is a conflict between a work requirement and a family obligation, it would be difficult to make out a prima facie case.

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Oh No That Is Our Employee In the Headlines!

Reputation is only a candle, of wavering and uncertain flame, and easily blown out, but it is the light by which the world looks for and finds merit. – James Russell Lowell

Imagine one day you were reading the weekend newspaper and discover one or more of your employees is engaged in activities that are not consistent with the good standing of the employer. What do you do?

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