Employer Penalized for Not Properly Handling Unfounded Complaint by Worker

After a worker was fired, he sued his employer for discrimination and harassment based on colour and reprisal for firing him for complaining about this mistreatment. The Human Rights Tribunal found that the worker hadn’t proven that he was the victim of discrimination or harassment. But it also concluded that the employer didn’t diligently investigate his complaints and, in fact, terminated him partly because he raised these issues and threatened to sue, which was an act of reprisal. So the Tribunal ordered the employer to pay the worker more than $55,000 in lost wages and $15,000 in damages for injury to his dignity, feelings and self-respect. It also ordered the employer to hire a human rights expert to review and revise its human rights policies and train members of management. And it ordered a now former company executive to take a human rights course prepared by the Ontario Human Rights Commission [Morgan v. Herman Miller Canada Inc., [2013] HRTO 650 (CanLII), April 18, 2013].