Canadian Employment Law Today

PM40065782 Emplo y ment Law Today Canad ad a ian www.employmentlawtoday.com May 27, 2015 A failure to move on Supervisor can't put harassment complaint behind him, leading to second complaint BY JEFFREY R. SMITH A BRITISH COLUMBIA worker faced additional harassment and discrimination following a grievance settlement when a su- pervisor told her at a meeting how the ear- lier matter had aff ected him, an arbitrator has ruled. Meghan Henderson was an apprentice welder for I.G. Machine and Fibres, a manu- facturer of granules for roofi ng shingles in Ashcroft, B.C. Henderson's employment with I.G. Machine began in 2005 and she became a welder about six years later. In 2014, Henderson and another female employee were having issues with the com- pany. Henderson felt she wasn't getting enough opportunities to complete her ap- prenticeship and become a journeyperson welder. ey fi led a human rights complaint and a grievance under the collective agree- ment. On Aug. 20, 2014, a settlement agreement was reached in which I.G. Machine agreed to provide Henderson with suffi cient op- portunities to train and work as a welder so she could work her way towards achieving status as a journeyperson welder. To this end, the agreement stipulated Henderson would meet with her supervisors to iden- tify areas she needed to work on and follow through with proper training and meet reg- ularly to evaluate progress. Timing is everything pg. 3 Differing case law raises debate over validity of termination clauses that may not comply with ESA with Brian Kenny CREDIT: ISAK55/SHUTTERSTOCK Foreign worker's language ability inadequate pg. 4 Foreign worker had positive LMO but visa offi cer felt worker's language skills didn't meet requirements for truck driver job INVESTIGATOR on page 9 » ASK AN EXPERT pg. 2 Assigning an employee's voluntary duties permanently COMMENTS on page 8 » Worker asks to get paid, gets called 'terrorist' by employer AN ONTARIO employer must pay more than $8,000 to an employee who left after he was called a "Muslim terrorist" and other names, the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal has ruled. Fadi Kannaiti was hired as an offi ce ad- ministrator on June 4, 2013, by Patricia Al- len for her paralegal company in Toronto, Allen's Executive Management Services. Initially, the hiring was on a trial basis for $10 per hour, but after two months Allen told Kannaiti she liked his work and wanted him on a permanent basis. Kannaiti said he was interested in continu- ing to work for the company, but he needed to be paid more. Allen agreed to fi nd a way to pay him more and enrolled the company in the Employment Service Training Incen- tive, a wage subsidy program funded by the Ontario Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities. Under an agreement with the program, the company would provide train- ing to Kannaiti, Kannaiti would be paid $12 per hour, and the provincial government would reimburse the company for half that amount once time sheets were submitted. Sometimes Kannaiti noticed Allen made rude and obnoxious comments to him and others in the offi ce, but Kannaiti didn't think much of them. However, in August 2013, the company began paying him only a part of the wages he was owed and forced him to sign time sheets that stated he had been paid in full. Allen told Kannaiti he would be paid his full wages once the government re- imbursed the company for its share. However, Kannaiti continued to receive less than his wages and contacted the gov- ernment agency in charge of the program. e agency contacted Allen, who said she would pay Kannaiti. However, by Sept. 3, 2013, Kannaiti still hadn't received his full pay and his unpaid wages added up to more than $3,000. Kannaiti decided he wouldn't work if he wasn't going to be fully paid and told Allen he

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