Canadian Employment Law Today

February 28, 2018

Focuses on human resources law from a business perspective, featuring news and cases from the courts, in-depth articles on legal trends and insights from top employment lawyers across Canada.

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PM40065782 Emplo y ment Law Today Canad ad a ian www.employmentlawtoday.com February 28, 2018 Fired worker gets $30,000 in aggravated and punitive damages for wrongful dismissal Employer terminated worker instead of investigating harassment complaint; employer's conduct aggravated worker's depression BY JEFFREY R. SMITH AN ONTARIO employer must pay more than $45,000 to a short-term former em- ployee with depression who suff ered ha- rassment at work and was terminated after complaining about it. Wendy Horner was hired by Superior Coatings, a paint store in under Bay, Ont., in 2016. At the time of her employment, Horner was being treated for depression. e treatment included a prescription for a low-dose antidepressant she received in July 2016. Horner told her supervisor but no one else at the store. Shortly after Horner was began working at the store, a male co-worker began acting rude to her and, according to Horner, "rou- tinely belittled" her. e harassing behaviour took place often when they were alone, but also in front of other people. On one occasion in December 2016, the co-worker elbowed Horner on purpose when she tried to move behind him in a Policy violation, not disability, reason for worker's fi ring Company accommodated disability by permitting absences when necessary, but didn't have to accommodate worker's failure to follow reporting policy BY JEFFREY R. SMITH THE ONTARIO Human Rights Tribunal has upheld the dismissal of a worker who suff ered from kidney stones because the dismissal was for his failure to follow the procedure for reporting his absences, not the absences themselves. Nicholas Rajic started working for Omega Tool Corporation, a company that engineers and manufactures plastics tooling based in Oldcastle, Ont., on Nov. 30, 2015. On his fi rst day, he attended an orientation with a human resources assistant where he re- viewed the employee handbook including the company's attendance policy. e attendance policy stated that Omega expected employees "to be at work every day, on time, as scheduled." However, if em- ployees were unable to start work at their normal starting time, regardless of the rea- son, they were required to notify their man- CREDIT: CONSTANTIN STANCIU/SHUTTERSTOCK Mentally and physically troubled worker didn't mean to quit pg. 3 Worker felt frequent absences and medical issues made it diffi cult but wasn't thinking clearly B.C. arbitrator sets aside random drug and alcohol testing in coal mines pg. 4 Company couldn't prove workplace problem with drugs and alcohol EMPLOYEE on page 6 » WORKER ENTITLED on page 7 » ASK AN EXPERT pg. 2 Asking questions about criminal charges and convictions with Colin Gibson

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