Injured Worker Didn’t Abandon His Job, He Got Fired

If we don’t hear back from you within 72 hours, a company policy stated, we’ll assume you’ve abandoned the job and terminate your employment.  I didn’t know about the policy, a seasonal worker who was terminated with an injury contended; and even if I had, I couldn’t have reached out because I was in a hospital bed fighting for my life from blood loss. The Alberta Human Rights Commission ruled that the company committed disability discrimination and awarded the worker $10,000 in damages, a pretty good chunk of change considering that the worker had been with the company for only 4 months [York v Line West Ltd., 2022 AHRC 51 (CanLII), May 5, 2022].