Canadian Employment Law Today | 3
Canadian HR Reporter, a Thomson Reuters business 2018
Cases and Trends
Firing was business decision,
not discrimination
Employer properly handled harassment incident;
decided to dismiss worker after learning she planned to quit
BY JEFFREY R. SMITH
A BRITISH COLUMBIA worker's dismiss-
al wasn't related to her complaints of sexual
harassment from a co-worker's behaviour
and management comments but rather
was a business decision when her employer
learned of her intention to quit, the B.C. Hu-
man Rights Tribunal has ruled.
Crystal Brown worked for Proactive
Hazmat & Environmental — a company that
provides asbestos removal, vermiculite re-
moval, and mould remediation for residen-
tial and commercial buildings — as a hazmat
worker from Aug. 1, 2014, to Dec. 22, 2015.
On the latter date, Brown resigned from her
position with Proactive.
Less than four months after Brown's resig-
nation, Proactive rehired her effective April
4, 2016. She continued in the level 1 hazmat
worker position until early October, when
she attended training for the level 2 hazmat
worker position.
During a break in the training, Proactive's
general manager overheard Brown talking to
another employee about "sexts" — text mes-
sages of a sexual nature. e general manager
asked Brown if she had received sexts from
any of her co-workers and Brown replied
that she hadn't. However, she did say that re-
cently a male co-worker had approached her
from behind and "grinded" himself against
her. Brown said that she had reported the
incident to her foreman, who had dealt with
the matter at the time. e male co-worker
had apologized and Brown had accepted.
e general manager remained con-
cerned about the incident and investigated
further. He met with Brown and Proactive's
superintendent to learn more about what
happened. Brown talked about how it had
made her feel and the general manager told
her that while he didn't blame her for the
incident, she should avoid using terms such
as "hun" and "sweetie-pie" when talking to
male co-workers as her intentions could be
misinterpreted. e superintendent added
that Brown was working "in a man's world."
Brown disagreed, as she felt she was usu-
ally treated with respect at work and "the
only people in this company that make me
feel like a woman in a man's world are in
this room." According to Brown, the super-
intendent also said the type of incident she
experienced should be expected, though the
superintendent and general manager both
denied that was said or that she disagreed
with anything they said.
e same day as the meeting — Oct. 7 —
Proactive fired the male employee involved
EMPLOYEE on page 9 »
