‘These situations are always an exercise in patience - other employers might have been more frustrated’

By Jeffrey R. Smith

Apr 17, 2025

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A federal labour board has dismissed multiple complaints and grievances by a former federal employee who alleged that his termination and a request for a fit-to-work assessment were reprisals for invoking workplace safety provisions under the Canada Labour Code.

The worker was an information management analyst in the human resources branch of Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) in Toronto. On Dec. 22, 2019, he informed ESDC that he was exercising his right to refuse unsafe work under the code. His refusal was because of two encounters he had had with a co-worker outside of work a couple of days earlier.

According to the worker, on two separate occasions the co-worker told him on a subway train that “you’re being watched, and on the watch list.” The worker said that he had felt threatened by the co-worker’s comments, and he considered exposure to the co-worker a workplace danger.

ESDC told the worker he could work from home while it investigated the work refusal.

On Jan. 7, 2020, the worker emailed the co-worker and copied his manager. The email accused the co-worker of being a coward and stated that the next time the co-worker terrorized the worker in public, he would defend himself “by all [and] any means” and he was “not afraid of any more consequences.”

Fitness-to-work assessment

ESDC was concerned about the...

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