Firing Bookkeeper for Confidentiality Breach ≠ OHS Reprisal

An ex-employee asked a bookkeeper for confidential contact information on the organization’s board members so she could sue the executive director for sex harassment. Without asking permission or notifying her bosses, the bookkeeper provided the information. When management found out, it fired her. The bookkeeper claimed she was fired in reprisal for raising a safety issue in violation of the OHS Act. The OLRB tossed her complaint. The bookkeeper may or may not have gotten a raw deal. But what was clear is that she didn’t have a valid OHS reprisal claim. Giving confidential information on board members wasn’t the exercise of an OHS right triggering protection against reprisal, the Board explained [Patricia Woodtke v Wise Owl Day Care Centre, 2019 CanLII 66160 (ON LRB), July 15, 2019].