CELT July 24 2013:celt 467.qxd 13-07-09 2:44 PM Page 3
CANADIAN EMPLOYMENT LAW TODAY
Ontario worker gets $70,000
for discrimination and reprisal firing
Employee's perceptions of discrimination were often wrong
but employer didn't investigate and fired him following complaint
| BY JEFFREY R. SMITH |
was to be the go-between for the company and the installation crews, someAN ONTARIO company has been ordered thing which suited Morgan because he
by the province's human rights tribunal wanted to work in an office environment
to pay a former employee more than without physical labour, which he had
$70,000 in lost wages and other damages done previously.
resulting from discriminaMorgan was aware that
tion and harassment based
he was the only black man
on the employee's race and
employed with Herman
DISCRIMINATION
reprisals
for
the
Miller, other than the subemployee's complaint.
contracted installation
Aldeen Morgan was an installation crews. He soon became concerned when
scheduler for Workplace Resource, a he was asked to perform duties outside
division of Herman Miller Canada, a fur- of his job description and outside of his
niture design and installation company regular work hours. Many of these
based in Toronto. The position was a duties involved physical labour such as
new one created to streamline the super- moving heavy furniture. He felt he was
vision and scheduling of the installation required to do more and heavier work
crews for Herman Miller, who are sub- than others because of his colour.
contracted by the company. Morgan's job
In the spring of 2008, about 10 months
after Morgan began working for Workplace Resource, the president told him
the company was considering no longer
outsourcing the installation work. He
indicated this information was confidential, but Morgan later told one of the
company's biggest contractors what was
going on.
Herman Miller considered terminating Morgan's employment for disclosing
the information, but Morgan apologized
and he was put on a six-month probationary period beginning in August 2008
during which his work would be monitored.
Concerns of racial discrimination grew
In the winter of 2008, Morgan saw an
Continued on page 9
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Published by Canadian HR Reporter, a Thomson Reuters business 2013
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