No Evidence of Link Between Alleged Harassment and Discriminatory Grounds

A stylist at a salon alleged her employer and co-workers harassed her, criticizing the quality of her work, yelling at her in front of customers and accusing her of theft. After the employer terminated her, the stylist filed an employment standards complaint which resulted in a determination she was entitled to four weeks salary as termination pay. She filed an application with the Human Rights Tribunal alleging reprisal. Her application, however, failed to say how she was trying to pursue rights under the Human Rights Code or that she had refused to infringe the human rights of another. Her application was therefore dismissed because it merely described alleged instances of harassing behavior but made no link to a reprisal in violation of the Human Rights Code. The tribunal explained it didn’t have “authority to deal with general complaints of harassment” unconnected to any violation of Code rights [Khan v. Heritage Glen Salon and Spa, [2014] HRTO 1556 (CanLII), Oct. 20, 2014].