Canadian Employment Law Today

Canadian HR Reporter, 2019 contacted her supervisor to say she would not be at work because of a knee injury and later emailed the manager to say she was resigning effective the end of Septem- ber. is was followed a week later by a doctor's note stating Raudales would be off work for medical reasons until the ef- fective date of her resignation. In mid-September, the manager con- tacted Raudales for a written complaint about her bullying and harassment alle- gations, as Interior Health was investigat- ing. Raudales said the reason she wasn't at work was because of the emotional effects of bullying and harassment. She also said she couldn't attend an investigation meet- ing because she was working elsewhere. Interior Health's investigation con- cluded Raudales had not been bullied or harassed. A WorkSafe BC officer visited Swan Valley to review the investigation's findings and found it complied with B.C. legislation and WorkSafe BC policy. In early October, after Raudales' resig- nation, the manager wrote to Raudales to inform her of the investigation results and also said he would be formally reporting concerns about her nursing practices to the College of Psychiatric Nurses. Rau- dales later filed a human rights complaint of discrimination that caused her to quit her job — accusing Interior Health of dis- ciplining her, extending her probation for reasons connected to her disability, con- doning harassment and bullying related to her disability, and writing to the Col- lege of Psychiatric Nurses as a result of its perceptions of her disability — which Interior Health applied to have dismissed. e B.C. Human Rights Tribunal found that while Raudales experienced an ad- verse impact when her probationary peri- od was extended and Interior Health held the multiple meetings to discuss her per- formance, there was sufficient evidence to show Interior Health accommodated Raudales after she disclosed her disabil- ity and provided medical information to support a request for accommodation. It referred her to its disability department, collected information about her disabil- ity, and requested the medical informa- tion it needed to understand her disability and move forward with accommodation. However, Raudales resigned only two weeks after she provided the medical in- formation. In addition, the tribunal found that there was no indication Raudales objected to the accommodations Interior Health provided or suggested other options be- fore she resigned. Instead, Raudales ended the accommodation process when she re- signed, said the tribunal. e tribunal also found Interior Health didn't condone the bullying and harass- ment, as it asked her to submit a written complaint — which she only did after the second request — at which point In- terior Health investigated. e employer also continued the investigation even af- ter Raudales resigned, said the tribunal. ough it was "unfortunate" Raudales felt she had to quit due to the emotional toll the harassment took on her, Interior health made reasonable efforts to investi- gate her complaint to a conclusion, which had no connection to her disability, said the tribunal. Finally, the tribunal found Raudales' allegation that Interior Health's report of professional practice concerns to the College of Psychiatric Nurses was related to her disability and caused an adverse impact related to her disability could not succeed as well. ere were documented performance concerns with her work and Raudales didn't deny them. ese con- cerns were based on real evidence and did not go "beyond conjecture and specula- tion," said the tribunal. e tribunal dismissed Raudales' com- plaint on the basis that it could not suc- ceed in a hearing. For more information see: • Raudales v. Interior Health Authority (No. 3), 2019 BCHRT 73 (B.C. Human Rights Trib.). May 29, 2019 | Canadian Employment Law Today ABOUT THE AUTHOR Jeffrey R. Smith Jeffrey R. Smith is the editor of Canadian Employment Law Today. He can be reached at jeffrey.r.smith@thomsonreuters.com, or visit www.employmentlawtoday.com for more information. CREDIT: BY KAZOKA/SHUTTERSTOCK

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