PM40065782
Emplo
y
ment Law Today
Canad ad a ian
www.employmentlawtoday.com
March 28, 2018
Worker's fi ring not a reprisal for unsuccessful
leave request, but termination pay owed
Worker quit after unsuccessful caregiver leave request,
rehired and then fi red for ignoring warnings relating to misconduct
BY JEFFREY R. SMITH
AN ONTARIO company that hired back
a worker who quit after a caregiver leave
request was denied and later fi red her did
not reprise against the worker but does owe
her termination pay, the Ontario Labour
Relations Board has ruled.
Debora Cabrera was hired to work at an
Ottawa franchise location of fast food and
frozen dairy product retailer Dairy Queen
— operated by a company called Claudia
Foods — in April 2013. However, things
didn't go very well before too long and there
were issues with Cabrera's conduct at work
—she had a habit of gossiping about her co-
workers to the point where her manager
had to warn her several times about being a
team player and not to gossip. Cabrera also
regularly extended her annual winter leave
without approval or notice.
e owner of Claudia Foods, Filomena
Aprile, kept Cabrera employed for some
time because she had invested time and
money in Cabrera's training on food
handling and safety and hoped things
would turn around.
New shift schedule to accommodate
disability not discrimination
Worker claimed evening shift schedule was disability and family status
discrimination, but other options weren't reasonable: Tribunal
BY JEFFREY R. SMITH
A BRITISH COLUMBIA worker who
claimed a new shift schedule because of his
epilepsy that made him work more evenings
was discrimination based on his disability
and family status has his claim dismissed by
the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal.
Darcy Adair worked as a forensic security
offi cer (FSO) at Colony Farm, a forensic
psychiatric hospital in Port Coquitlam,
B.C. that was operated by the Forensic
Psychiatric Services Commission. Colony
Farm looked after patients who had broken
the law but were deemed not fi t to stand
trial due to mental illness. Adair was fi rst
hired by the commission as a health care
worker in 2005 and became an FSO in 2010.
Adair's job as an FSO was to safely and
securely escort maximum security and
high risk patients as necessary, ensure the
Suitable employment,
accommodation not necessarily
the same thing pg. 3
Workers' compensation regime and
charter rights have similar goals
CSC offi cer fi red for criminal
associations, using cocaine pg. 4
Corrections offi cer suspended, then fi red
for violating code of conduct and then
denying it despite the evidence
WORKER REQUESTED on page 11 »
CREDIT:
TASHATUVANGO/SHUTTERSTOCK
NIGHT SHIFT on page 8 »
with Leah Schatz
Paying employees
on standby pg. 2
