Canadian Employment Law Today

PM41261516 Hazards at home during the pandemic PG. 4 Do employers have to protect employees from safety hazards while working from home? THE BRITISH Columbia Human Rights Tribunal has dismissed a fired language assistant's claim of discrimination against a school board. Adel Sahraoui was hired by the Central Okanagan School District in September 2017 to be a French- speaking language assistant in the French-as-a-sec - ond-language program. His job was to "create activi- ties reflecting everyday communication situations to help students improve their language skills." When Sahraoui met the school board's French co- ordinator, she expressed surprise at his age — most language assistants were in their late teens or early 20s, while Sahraoui was older — but she said his knowledge and experience would be an asset. When the co-ordinator introduced him to school staff, she discussed his Arab and Muslim origin and his cultural experience in Algeria, France and Quebec. Sahraoui didn't like the way she introduced him. Bad first impression On Sahraoui's first day in the Grade 1 class, he was 20 minutes late so the teacher started a work activity. When Sahraoui arrived, he introduced himself to the class in the middle of the activity and wrote his name on the blackboard in cursive writing. The teacher stopped him and showed him how the children need - ed him to print his name, after which Sahraoui ap- peared angry. Sahraoui then told the children he was from Algeria and that he was Muslim and they were A BRITISH Columbia company's shift change that required an employee to alter her child's daycare arrangements was not serious enough to constitute family status discrimination, the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal has ruled. Nicole Ziegler worked for Pacific Blue Cross (PBC), an insurance benefits provider, in the customer service department. PBC hired her as a customer service representative in Septem - ber 2006 and promoted her to team leader in October 2011. Her job duties included being a contact representative for a team of customer service representatives and locking up the Burnaby, B.C. facility at the end of the closing shift. Each day, the queue of customer calls was cut off at 4 p.m. so they could be handled in October 21, 2020 B.C. house cleaner gets $40,000 for sex discrimination, harassment by employer PG. 3 Homeowner claimed sexual activities for more money were cleaner's idea, but his story didn't hold up against that of worker and her husband WORKER DIDN'T TRUST on page 6 » CREDIT: MAXIMFESENKO iSTOCK CREDIT: LEOPATRIZI iSTOCK LANGUAGE on page 7 » with Leah Schatz A failure to communicate Instructions on how to engage students and performance feedback not discrimination against B.C. school board's language assistant: Tribunal Ask an Expert PG. 2 Employee's childcare obligations before seeking accommodation No family status discrimination against picky B.C. worker Shift change prevented worker from picking up child on time, but she didn't adequately consider other daycare options BY JEFFREY R. SMITH BY JEFFREY R. SMITH

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