Canadian Safety Reporter

5 Canadian HR Reporter, a Thomson Reuters business 2018 News | September 2018 | CSR 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 work- er's dismissal wasn't related to her complaints of sexual harass- ment from a co-worker's be- haviour and management com- ments but rather was a business decision when her employer learned of her intention to quit, the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal has ruled. Crystal Brown worked for Proactive Hazmat & Environ- mental, a company that provides asbestos removal, vermiculite removal, and mould remedia- tion for residential and commer- cial buildings, as a hazmat work- er 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 resignation, Proactive rehired her effective April 4, 2016. She continued in the level 1 hazmat worker position until early October, when she attend- ed training for the level 2 hazmat worker position. During a break in the train- ing, Proactive's general manager overheard Brown talking to an- other employee about "sexts" — text messages of a sexual na- ture. The 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 ap- proached her from behind and "grinded" himself against her. Brown said that she had report- ed the incident to her foreman, who had dealt with the matter at the time. The male co-worker had apologized and Brown had accepted. The general manager re- mained concerned about the in- cident and investigated further. He met with Brown and Proac- tive'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 misin- terpreted. The superintendent added that Brown was working "in a man's world." Brown disagreed, as she felt she was usually 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 super- intendent and general manager both denied that was said or that she disagreed with anything they said. The same day as the meeting — Oct. 7 — Proactive fired the male employee involved in the incident with Brown. Worker upset by management's comments Brown was upset by the meeting and the suggestion that using the words "hun" and "sweetie-pie" could give male co-workers the wrong impression. She talked to a health and safety manager about it, and he responded that he would look into it and let her know. She also talked to Proac- tive's field safety co-ordinator, who told her that her rights had been infringed and he would also look into it. However, Brown didn't hear from either of them and both left Proactive at some point. On Oct. 28, Brown sent a text message to Proactive's opera- tions manager — it was normal practice for employees to com- municate by text message since they were often at different job sites — saying her last day with Proactive would be two months later, on Dec. 24, and she was go- ing to "move forward" with the next stage of her life since she had been "standing still with my wage for a long time now." After a few more text messages involv- ing "happy face" emojis, Brown texted him that he was "a good man" and she was going to "miss you like crazy." The operations manager for- warded the text messages to Decision > pg. 8 Credit: Shutterstock/MikeDotta e worker was told to avoid using terms such as 'hun' and 'sweetie-pie' when talking to male co-workers.

• Cover