Discrimination: Appeals Court Pulls the Plug on $33,000 Pregnancy Discrimination Ruling

A waitress claimed that the employer cut her hours and then fired her because she was pregnant without notice or severance. The employer claimed she was fired because of her attitude and pregnancy-based work hour demands. The Alberta Human Rights Tribunal found discrimination and awarded the waitress $10,600 in lost wages and $23,000 in general damages. The court found that the Commission’s ruling was factually sound but reversed it because of unfairness and potential bias in the hearing in allowing the waitress to introduce “unrestrained bad character evidence” about the restaurant owner and constantly interfering with his attempts to cross-examine the waitress. Result: The case had to be reheard [557466 Alberta Ltd v McPherson, 2022 ABQB 23 (CanLII), January 7, 2022].