Two years after starting her role as an administrative assistant, a worker became ill and was required to take a Long Term Disability leave. When the employee was cleared to return to work, her employer informed her that her position was no longer available. The employer then put the onus on the worker to apply to positions through its internal portal. The employee was given a short period of time to find alternate work with the employer and was told that her employment would be terminated if she didn’t. The worker was understandably shocked and upset. She felt devalued because of the mistreatment that the employer subjected her to after her disability leave, and her symptoms worsened significantly.
Deeply concerned that she was being placed at a disadvantage simply because she took a disability leave, the worker contacted the human rights, employment, and labour lawyers at Franklin Law and booked a Consultation Clinic with Taylor Akin. During the Clinic and through several follow-up conversations, the worker came to understand that her employer very likely breached Ontario’s Human Rights Code by discriminating against her on the basis of disability.
After the time period had lapsed, the worker’s worst fears became reality and the employer terminated her employment. Believing that the employer had discriminated against her in violation of the Human Rights Code, the employee immediately retained Franklin Law so that Taylor could file an Application with the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario on her behalf and initiate settlement discussions with her former employer.
The employee’s former employer used tactics commonly seen by the human rights, employment, and labour lawyers at Franklin Law. It denied discrimination, tried to shift attention away from the central issues of the case, and trivialized the severity of the worker’s experience.
After prolonged back and forth negotiations between Taylor and the former employer’s counsel, the parties were able to settle the dispute without resorting to litigation at the HRTO, and the employee was able to start a new position and leave her negative experience in the past.
This employee’s experience reinforces the need for workers to trust their own intuitions about mistreatment at work, and the benefits of taking proactive steps to get legal advice from experienced human rights, employment, and labour lawyers like Taylor and other lawyers who work at Franklin Law. It also reinforces employee’s ability to speak truth to power and secure positive outcomes when they working collaboratively with a law firm like Franklin Law that focuses exclusively on employee’s interests.
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