PM40065782
Emplo
y
ment Law Today
Canad ad a ian
www.employmentlawtoday.com
November 22, 2017
Worker doesn't get his way
with accommodation or discrimination complaint
CPR engineer didn't agree with railway's accommodation of his sleep
disorder, but options provided were reasonable, says tribunal
BY JEFFREY R. SMITH
A CANADIAN Pacifi c Railway worker
with a sleep disorder who didn't like the ac-
commodation options presented to him has
had his complaint of discrimination based
on disability and family status dismissed by
the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal.
Keith Waddle was hired by Canadian Pa-
cifi c Railway (CPR) in 1986 and became a
locomotive engineer at CPR's Lethbridge,
Alta., terminal in 2011. His job duties as an
engineer involved driving trains from his
home terminal to other terminals in south-
ern Alberta and back.
Waddle was on what was called "unas-
signed service," which meant he was re-
quired to be on-call during his shifts. He
received phone calls from CPR during his
shifts with at least two hours' notice of his
start time. Once he arrived for a call, he
would drive a train to an away terminal —
which could take up to 12 hours — then he
would be on call again waiting for the return
trip. Assigned service locomotive engineers
worked set shifts with no call-out window.
Waddle had some health issues, in-
Termination of anorexic worker
discrimination: Tribunal
B.C. employee couldn't see her own illness, but clues were there
for employer as reason for decline in performance
BY JEFFREY R. SMITH
A BRITISH COLUMBIA company's ap-
plication to dismiss a discrimination com-
plaint by a terminated employee with an-
orexia nervosa has been denied by the B.C.
Human Rights Tribunal.
e worker was hired by the company in
May 2014 following a successful university
career in which the worker fi nished third
in her class. e worker had very good ref-
erences from previous employers and the
company found out quickly that she was able
to work well independently and with good
results.
However, things changed in the latter part
of 2014 when the worker developed anorexia
nervosa, an eating disorder characterized by
obsessive attempts to lose weight, often to
the point of starvation. As a result, the work-
er became malnourished and began to have
CREDIT:
TERO
VESALAINEN/SHUTTERSTOCK
Fiduciary employees —
Can you poach? pg. 3
Certain key employees with
important knowledge have limits
on what they can do after resigning
Stirring the political pot pg. 4
Employees protesting and expressing
political views involves a balance
between freedom of expression and
what's appropriate in the workplace
with Tim Mitchell
WORKER on page 6 »
EMPLOYEE DIDN'T
on page 7 »
ASK AN EXPERT pg. 2
Offensive material
on employee's personal
social media feeds
