The Law of Work
  • Home
  • About
  • Professor David Doorey
  • Osgoode Hall LLM
  • Books
  • Guest Contributors
  • Useful Links
    • Archive
  • Home
  • About
  • Professor David Doorey
  • Osgoode Hall LLM
  • Books
  • Guest Contributors
  • Useful Links
    • Archive
The Law of Work
Law of Work Archive

My Boss is a Prick. Can I File a Human Rights Complaint?

by David Doorey May 28, 2010
written by David Doorey May 28, 2010

There was a story in the Star  about how a bunch of employees of the Ontario Ombudsman’ office have filed human rights complaints against their employer.  The story line is essentially that the boss, Andre Marin, took over in 2005 and has terrorized the employees with intrusive management practices and “bizarre” rules.  The story claims that 70 people have left the employer since Marin took over.  Marin denies most of the claims, but does acknowledge that he saw his job to be to whip the place into shape, so he set standards high, and expected employees to work hard to obtain them.
A few of  the complaints listed in the story allege racial discrimination and a failure to accommodate disability, which if true would be human rights violations.  However, the Star story is mostly describing HR practices that are not employee friendly.  For example, the employees allege that there are rules:  banning personal photos at desks;  banning charity bake sales at work; forbidding employees from speaking to Marin unless he addresses them first;  prohibiting casual dress; and prohibiting employees from walking past Marin’s office.  Mostly, the employees seem pissed off about the confrontational and unfriendly way in which they claim their boss and managers are treating them.

Is it a violation of the Human Rights Code for a manager to be a prick to workers?

The answer is no, unless he is being a prick because the employees fall into one of the prohibited grounds in the human rights code.  So, if Marin is picking on non-white people only  (as one sentence infers in the Star piece), then that is a human rights problem.  But if a manager is a prick to everyone–an equal opportunity prick, if you will–then there is probably not a human rights complaint.
There is however an implied term in every employment contract that employers will treat employees with decency and civility.   A similar requirement was recently implied into collective agreements in Canada too (a requirement for employers to not behave in a manner that will destroy the employees’ trust and confidence in the employer).  So, if Marin is being uncivil and a prick to his employees, they may have a claim for breach of that term.  But they would not likely have a human rights complaint.
As I tell my students, the Human Rights Code does not regulate bad management practices, only discriminatory management practices.

2 comments
0
FacebookTwitterLinkedinEmail
David Doorey

Professor Doorey is an Associate Professor of Work Law and Industrial Relations at York University. He is Academic Director of Osgoode Hall Law School’s executive LLM Program in Labour and Employment Law and a Senior Research Associate at Harvard Law School’s Labor and Worklife Program. Professor Doorey is a graduate of Osgoode Hall Law School (LL.B., Ph.D), London School of Economics (LLM Labour Law), and the University of Toronto (B.A., M.I.R.).

Leave a Comment Cancel Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

previous post
Similar Fact Evidence in Workplace Disputes
next post
I-Pad Maker Requires Employees to Sign "No Suicide" Agreement!

You may also like

This Blog Entry is About the Lunacy of...

July 21, 2019

A Cross Country Update on the Card-Check versus...

October 3, 2018

The Folly of Not Voting to Strike in...

September 16, 2018

Unifor Posts Photos of Replacement Workers as Gander...

September 10, 2018

A Wrongful Dismissal Case and the Absence of...

August 29, 2018

China Said to Quickly Withdraw Approval for New...

August 27, 2018

The Latest Hot E-Commerce Idea in China: The...

August 27, 2018

The Trump Administration Just Did Something Unambiguously Good...

August 27, 2018

Unstable Situations Require Police In Riot Gear Face...

August 27, 2018

Trump’s War on the Justice System Threatens to...

August 27, 2018

Follow Us On Social Media

Twitter

Latest Tweets

TheLawofWork Follow

@ ·
now

Reply on Twitter Retweet on Twitter Like on Twitter Twitter
Load More

Categories

  • Alberta
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Australia
  • British Columbia
  • Charter of Rights and Freedoms
  • Childcare
  • Class Action
  • Climate and Just Transition
  • Collective Bargaining
  • Common Law of Employment
  • Comparative Work Law
  • competition law
  • construction
  • Constructive Dismissal
  • COVID-19
  • Diversity
  • Employee Classification
  • Employment Insurance
  • Employment Regulation
  • Europe
  • Financial Industry
  • Fissured Work
  • Freedom of Association
  • frustration of contract
  • Gender
  • Gig Work
  • Health and Safety
  • Health Care
  • Human Rights
  • Immigration
  • Interest Arbitration
  • International Law
  • Labour Arbitration
  • Labour Economics
  • Law of Work Archive
  • Legal Profession
  • Manitoba
  • Migrant Workers
  • Minimum Wage
  • New Zealand
  • Newfoundland
  • Nova Scotia
  • OLRB
  • Ontario
  • Pension Bankruptcy
  • Privacy
  • Public Sector
  • Quebec
  • Real Life Pleadings
  • Saskatchewan
  • Scholarship
  • Sports Labour
  • Strikes and Lockouts
  • Student Post
  • Supreme Court of Canada
  • Tax Law
  • technology
  • Transnational Law
  • Uncategorized
  • Unions and Collective Bargaining
  • United States
  • Videos
  • Women and Work
  • Wrongful Dismissal
  • Home
  • About
  • Guest Contributors
Menu
  • Home
  • About
  • Guest Contributors
  • Legal Scholarship
  • Useful Links
  • Archive
Menu
  • Legal Scholarship
  • Useful Links
  • Archive

2020. Canadian Law of Work Forum. All Rights Reserved.