Slaw: Case of employer who discriminated against disabled employee for paying her $1.25 per hour… reconsidered

November 1, 2012 Yosie Saint-Cyr Accessibility Standards, Employee Relations, Employment/Labour Standards, Human Resources, Human Rights, Payroll, Standard for Employment, Wages and Compensation, 0

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Last May 2012, an adjudicator upheld a prior Ontario Human Rights Tribunal decision (January 2012) that an employer discriminated against a long-time employee when it was decided to terminate her because she suffered from a disability. However, the damage award based on her $1.25 per hour wage rate was not reconsidered since the employee never complained during the years she worked there. The employee had been awarded damages of $15,000 for the discrimination based on her 10 years at a wage rate of $1.25 per hour.

The outcome of this case did not sit well with the public or the Ontario Human Rights Commission. As a result, another request for reconsideration was filed.

At issue in the second request for reconsideration is the Tribunal’s determination that an ongoing wage differential between disabled and non-disabled employees is not a series of incidents for the purposes of determining the limitation period provided by section 34(1) of the Human Rights Code.

For more, read my latest blog post on Slaw.