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Emplo
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ment Law Today
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'Grumpy old man' fi red
for bad behaviour at work, not age
Worker's allegation that dismissal was because employer wanted
a younger, cheaper replacement didn't hold up to scrutiny
BY JEFFREY R. SMITH
THE BRITISH COLUMBIA Human
Rights Tribunal has determined that an
older worker's termination of employment
was due to issues with his performance and
behaviour, not his age.
Yaletown Mini Storage (YMS) operates
a car wash in Vancouver and hired Jaff ar
Jaff ar, 59, in November 2012 to be a car
wash attendant.
Over time, YMS found there were issues
with Jaff ar's work performance and attitude
and by August 2016, the company opted
to give him a disciplinary letter. e letter,
from the vice-president of YMS, outlined
problems with Jaff ar's use of more vacation
time than he was allowed, poor interaction
with customers — referring to customer
comments that he was the "grumpy old guy"
on the afternoon shift — and not following
an acceptable dress code.
Following the disciplinary letter, YMS
kept an eye on Jaff ar's conduct. However,
the vice-president felt he was "generally ar-
gumentative, negative and distrustful" and
believed Jaff ar was causing a toxic work
A few jokes and no complaint
means no sexual harassment
Worker said he was off ended by 3 jokes posted in lunchroom and off -colour comment
by manager, but his anxiety was attributable to altercation with co-worker
BY JEFFREY R. SMITH
A BRITISH COLUMBIA worker who
was off ended by a handful of sexualized
jokes posted at work but didn't tell any-
one about it was not subjected to sexual
harassment, the B.C. Human Rights Tri-
bunal has ruled.
Envirogreen Technologies is a company
that provides treatment and disposal solu-
tions for contaminated materials and soils.
Headquartered in Langley, B.C., Enviro-
green operates a hazardous waste treatment
facility in Princeton, B.C. e company
operates its waste disposal business from
April through December and runs in main-
tenance mode during the winter months.
e Princeton facility employed mostly
labourer positions and the workforce was
all male until August 2016, when Enviro-
green hired Katrina Graham as facility ad-
ministrator. At the time, there were 20 men
April 17, 2019
Disability accommodation must
be reasonable, not perfect pg. 3
Worker claimed employer
discriminated against him when it didn't
accommodate him in old job
Sexually harassed CRA worker
gets $60,000+ pg. 4
Response to complaint
immediate, but then slowed;
onus put on victim for solution
WORKER DIDN'T on page 6 »
NO EVIDENCE
on page 7 »
CREDIT:
MONKEY
BUSINESS
IMAGES/SHUTTERSTOCK
with Colin G. M. Gibson
Ask the Expert pg. 2
Moving an employee
to a fi xed-term contract
