Close X
Wednesday, December 4, 2024
ADVT 
National

Human Rights Ruling Says Manitoba Woman Was Addicted To Alcohol, Unjustly Fired

The Canadian Press, 15 Sep, 2015 11:40 AM
    WINNIPEG — A health-care aide's alcohol addiction qualifies as a disability, and her employer was wrong to fire her for drinking off the job, a Manitoba human rights adjudicator has ruled.
     
    Linda Horrocks is entitled to be reinstated, receive three years back pay and an additional $10,000 for injury to her dignity, independent adjudicator Sherri Walsh said in a report released Tuesday.
     
    "The issue for determination in this matter is not whether the complainant was drinking on a given day but rather whether (the employer) made reasonable efforts to accommodate the complainant as soon as it was aware that she had a disability and special needs associated with that disability," Walsh wrote.
     
    Horrocks was suspended from work at a personal care home in Flin Flon run by the Northern Regional Health Authority in June 2011 after a co-worker complained that she was drunk at work, according to evidence presented at the human rights board hearing.
     
    She signed an agreement that allowed her to return to work on several conditions, including that she abstain from alcohol both on and off the job and seek counselling.
     
    Horrocks was fired a year later when her employer received two reports that she had been drinking outside of work — once in a grocery store and once during a phone call with a manager.
     
    Horrocks denied consuming alcohol and said she had been undergoing addiction counselling. She eventually filed a complaint with the Manitoba Human Rights Commission, which appointed Walsh to hear the matter.
     
    The regional health authority told the hearing that it had tried to accommodate Horrocks but also needed to protect the safety of people in the health care system.
     
    Walsh ruled that alcohol addiction amounts to a disability under the human rights code, citing a 2013 ruling in a similar case.
     
    She also ruled the health authority failed to accommodate Horrocks' disability because it did not seek advice from experts in drawing up conditions for her return to work in 2011.
     
    "Instead, I find that members of the (health authority's) staff relied on their experiences with other staff who had required accommodation relating to addiction and on their own personal experiences," Walsh wrote.
     
    "Information of that sort is precisely the type of information that cannot be relied on as the basis for accommodating an employee. Each individual is entitled to an accommodation which is based on an individualized assessment of his or her specific needs."
     
    A spokesperson for the health authority said there would be no immediate comment.

    MORE National ARTICLES

    $2 An Hour: Indian Hoteliers Face Jail Term For Underpaying Workers In New Zealand

    $2 An Hour: Indian Hoteliers Face Jail Term For Underpaying Workers In New Zealand
    Joti Jain and Rajwinder Singh Grewal jointly pleaded guilty to a total of 20 immigration and exploitation charges at the Auckland district court

    $2 An Hour: Indian Hoteliers Face Jail Term For Underpaying Workers In New Zealand

    Donald MacLean, Nova Scotia Bus Driver Emotional As He Speaks Of Student's Death

    Donald MacLean, Nova Scotia Bus Driver Emotional As He Speaks Of Student's Death
    SYDNEY, N.S. — The driver of a school bus that ran over and killed a student outside a high school in Sydney, N.S., last winter says he didn't know something had happened until someone banged on the door of his bus.

    Donald MacLean, Nova Scotia Bus Driver Emotional As He Speaks Of Student's Death

    Mom And Baby Whale Number 5 Doing Well Off B.C. Coast As Population Rebounding

    Mom And Baby Whale Number 5 Doing Well Off B.C. Coast As Population Rebounding
    SOOKE, B.C. — Scientists say a fifth baby has joined an endangered population of killer whales off British Columbia's coast.

    Mom And Baby Whale Number 5 Doing Well Off B.C. Coast As Population Rebounding

    Woman Arrested, Police Seek Details Following Suspicious Death Involving Truck In Fort St. John

    Woman Arrested, Police Seek Details Following Suspicious Death Involving Truck In Fort St. John
    A woman is in custody as RCMP in Fort St. John, B.C., investigate what they are calling a suspicious death.

    Woman Arrested, Police Seek Details Following Suspicious Death Involving Truck In Fort St. John

    Muslim Flight Attendant Suspended For Refusing To Serve Alcohol Files Complaint

    Muslim Flight Attendant Suspended For Refusing To Serve Alcohol Files Complaint
    Charee Stanley, a Detroit-based flight attendant for ExpressJet, filed a discrimination complaint Tuesday with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

    Muslim Flight Attendant Suspended For Refusing To Serve Alcohol Files Complaint

    RCMP Lay Charges In Fire That Destroyed School In Nunavut

    RCMP Lay Charges In Fire That Destroyed School In Nunavut
    Police have laid charges in a fire that destroyed the only school for junior and senior high students in the Arctic community of Cape Dorset.

    RCMP Lay Charges In Fire That Destroyed School In Nunavut