OTTAWA-- OTTAWA - Public servants must bring discrimination and harassment complaints to the Canadian Human Rights Commission, instead of an internal staff relations board, says the Federal Court of Appeal.
"In my view, Parliament has enacted a particular method of resolving these questions, a rather complex, costly and time-consuming method perhaps, but until Parliament can be convinced to change its legislation, this court will honour the legislative choice," wrote Justice Allen Linden in a recent ruling.
The ruling means that employees with complaints covered under human rights laws, including allegations of discrimination based on gender, race or disability, could wait years for their cases to be settled at the commission -- last year it had a backlog of about 500 cases.
Grievances filed at the staff relations board, on the other hand, take less than one year to resolve. A federal worker is also guaranteed a hearing in arbitration, which is far from automatic at the human rights commission.
Unions condemned the decision as a blow to collective bargaining because it reduces the right to arbitration that has been established in negotiated contracts.
Steve Hindle, president of the 36,000-member Public Institute of the Professional Service, said the ruling could cause employees to think twice about seeking recourse when they're harassed on the job.
Joan Mohammed, a Muslim who complained more than six years ago that her superiors at the Immigration and Refugee Board had racist reasons for not renewing her contract, yesterday sought leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada.
"This raises a case of national and public importance," said Ms. Mohammed's lawyer, Andrew Raven. He said the ruling will force employees who feel they've been harassed to "engage in the time-consuming, protracted, frustrating process involving a human rights complaint.
"A union and an employer have recognized the importance of human rights in the workplace and have negotiated human rights protections in the contract, yet when there's an allegation those protections have been breached, we can't avail ourselves of traditional arbitration," Mr. Raven said.
Judge Linden's ruling dealt with three separate cases that have been held up for years because of a jurisdictional dispute between the Public Service Staff Relations Board and the rights commission.
Ross Boutilier, a gay geologist, began fighting in 1994 for five days of paid leave for a marriage-like ceremony with his partner, just as other federal employees get time off when they tie the knot. He won in arbitration, but the federal government argued the case was a matter for the Human Rights Commission and pursued the matter in Federal Court.
Four federal nurses, Rose O'Hagan, Susan Field, Janice Nachtegaele and Edith Nelson, all went to the staff relations board in the early 1990s seeking paid time off to recover from the stress of being sexually harassed at work for more than two years. The staff relations board ruled it has no jurisdiction over the complaint.
Keywords: CIVIL SERVICE; DISCRIMINATION; HARASSMENT; GOVERNMENT POLICY; LAWS AND REGULATIONS; CANADA
@ 2000 National Post