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Au health and safety complaint dismissed

The Ontario Labour Relations Board has dismissed Pauline Au's complaint that she was fired from her job in retaliation for having raised the issue of sexual harassment by a supervisor at work. The Board has jurisdiction to hear employee complaints of reprisals connected to health and safety matters. Readers of the September 1996 issue of FOCUS will recall that the Board had made a preliminary ruling that Au had raised a sufficiently arguable case for it to hear the matter. (For previous articles on the subject, see "Sexual harassment: A health and safety hazard?" on our Publications page and "Ontario Labour Relations Board can hear novel sexual harassment case" on our What's New page; see also "Less government involvement, more flexibility urged for Ontario's health and safety system" on our Publications page.)

In dismissing the complaint, the Board found that the evidence established that Au's termination was not motivated by her complaints of sexual harassment. The Board also rejected Au's allegations that a series of pre-termination incidents constituted reprisals.

Despite dismissing the complaint, the Board asserted that it has jurisdiction over complaints alleging reprisal for behaviour protected by the Occupational Health and Safety Act, even if the factual basis of the complaint involves sexual harassment. However, the Board noted, such cases will likely raise the question of whether it ought to take jurisdiction, in view of the explicit coverage of sexual harassment by the Human Rights Code.

For more information on this subject, please contact Carole Piette at (613) 563-7660, Extension 227.