Was it discrimination? Employer points to shortage of work, worker's periods of unavailability
Mar 03, 2025
A worker’s complaint that her age or gender played a role in her failure to gain seniority or apprentice hours, as well as the termination of her employment, has been dismissed by the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal.
The worker, 55, was trained as a heavy equipment operator and worked in the Alberta oil fields from 2013 to 2015. She relocated to Ontario due to a shortage of work in Alberta, entering an apprenticeship program for operating engineers in 2016. Over the next two years, she took on various roles as an apprentice in pursuit of the 6,000 hours required to successfully complete the apprenticeship program.
In October 2018, the union of which she was a member dispatched her to work at Sarens Canada, a national crane and equipment rental company for the construction industry, in its southern Ontario operations as a first-year mobile crane operator. The worker was one of eight apprentices dispatched to Sarens and her first scheduled shift was Nov. 15.
The collective agreement with Sarens provided for laid-off apprentices to be recalled at any time if they were employed for more than 90 working dates. It also stipulated that she would be paid 50 per cent of the licensed journeyman base rate for her first 2,000 hours worked and would become a junior hoisting engineer upon reaching 6,000 hours worked, provided she had a certificate of qualification.
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