Restaurant Owner Socked with $26.6K Psychological Harassment Penalty

From the moment she began working at the restaurant, an 18-year-old employee had to put up with sexual remarks’including some in front of customers and others on Facebook’and unwanted physical contact from her 45-year-old boss. After keeping her mouth shut for nearly 2 years, she got fired anyway. The Qu‚bec Human Rights Tribunal found psychological harassment and awarded the employee $26,600, roughly 3 times the normal rate for moral and punitive damages in these cases. ‘No one should feel humiliated, unworthy of respect or fear for their safety in the workplace, where we spend nearly half our lives,’
it concluded [Commission on Human Rights and Youth Rights (VL) c. Desormeaux, 2019 QCTDP 13 (CanLII), June 3, 2019].