Okay to show worker the door as long as it’s left open

St. Laurent v. Taylor Beange Doors & Frames, 2003 CarswellOnt 2979 (Ont. L.R.B.)

A worker has been awarded more than $8,400 because his company did not hire him back from a layoff after he initiated legal action against the firm.

George St. Laurent was laid off from his job as a finisher with Sudbury, Ont. door manufacturer Taylor Beange after he refused to sign a policy requiring him to keep his respirator at work at all times.

St. Laurent had been transferred to the shipping department, where he was not required to use the mask, and preferred to keep it at home. His employer insisted the mask be available for use at a moment’s notice in case he needed it for a different job, and asked him to sign a policy agreeing that not producing the mask would be grounds for dismissal. St. Laurent said he was worried other employees would use the respirator.

St. Laurent was laid off on July 20, 2001. The company said the layoff was simply to reduce staff, noting that three others were laid off shortly afterwards.

St. Laurent claimed the termination breached the Occupational Health and Safety Act, which states an employer may not dismiss a worker because he has acted in compliance with the act.

The court ruled St. Laurent’s original termination did not violate the act but that not rehiring him when someone was needed three months later did. The company didn’t rehire him because he had started legal action.

The court viewed the failure to rehire St. Laurent as a reprisal for the legal action. He was awarded back wages from the time he was not rehired, until the date he found work in 2002. St. Laurent was earning $11 per hour. The court used that figure to calculate his lost income during that period as $13,200. It deducted $2,000 that was already paid to St. Laurent plus other earnings of $2,715 for a total award of $8,485.

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