He insisted he was ready for work but his employer wasn't convinced
For more than two years, an injured mechanic insisted he was ready to return to work. British Columbia's human rights tribunal has just decided his former employer had already done enough.
In a decision released July 29, 2026, Tribunal member Beverly Froese of the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal dismissed the mechanic's complaint against Williams Machinery Limited Partnership, a Kelowna equipment dealer. Froese found the company had accommodated his disability to the point of undue hardship before ending his employment more than two years after a workplace injury sidelined him.
The worker, a service technician at the company's Kelowna shop, injured his groin in April 2017 while repairing a machine; the pain quickly spread to his lower back and down his leg. WorkSafe paid him wage-loss benefits, then cut them off five months later, concluding the injury had resolved.
By April 2018, the operations manager warned him he risked being treated as absent without leave. He testified he felt "threatened," since he believed he had kept the shop informed. Months later, a WorkSafe review officer reversed course, finding his back condition had in fact been aggravated at work.
By November 2018, WorkSafe accepted his claim for permanent chronic back pain and set lasting limits: medium lifting only, up to 20 kilograms, a change of position after about an hour on his...
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