FAILURE TO ACCOMMODATE LEADS TO HUMAN RIGHTS AWARE

PUBLIC SERVICE LABOUR RELATIONS BOARD

BETWEEN:  NATHALIE CYR, Grievor

AND:

TREASURY BOARD

(DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN RESOURCES & SKILLS DEVELOPMENT, Employer

Project Manager, Nathalie Cyr, works in the Department of Human Resources and Skills Development, Service Canada.  In February 2007 Ms Cyr filed a grievance alleging her employer had harassed and discriminated against her and failed in its duty to put in place and maintain accommodations to address her physical limitations due to environmental hypersensitivity she acquired.

Ms Cyr was relatively healthy until she was transferred to her new workplace location in 2004.  One month after working there, she started to feel tired, had headaches and sinus pain one hour after she would arrive at work but the symptoms would disappear when she left.  She requested and was permitted to work from home as a teleworker and only return to her workplace a few times a week.  Eventually, she was requested to return to full-time employment at her workplace which led her to filing a grievance in 2007.  

On March 22, 2011 her grievance was allowed and the employer was ordered to pay Ms Cyr, within 60 days:

·      $8,000 for pain and suffering she experienced;

·      $10,000 as a special award pursuant to subsection (53(3) of the Canadian Human Rights Act; and

·      $300 for the medical certicate.

File No. 566-02-2173

Citation: 2011 PSLrB 35

For further details, please view http://pslrb-crtfp.gc.ca/decisions/fulltext/2011-35_e.asp