Company and owner must pay $30,000 after owner called sales agent with addiction history a ‘crackhead’ to his face and to clients
Digging up the past
Giving in to anger in the context of the workplace isn’t usually a good idea. Even if there’s no physical altercation, words can land an employer in trouble, especially if it involves a manager verbally dressing down an employee. Sometimes people say things without thinking — or caring — about what they say, and this could lead to bigger trouble if the recipient of the verbal abuse has a disability that’s brought up. If that person’s dignity, feelings or self-respect is damaged in the context of that disability, look out.
An Ontario company and one of its owners must pay a former employee with a history of drug addiction almost $30,000 for calling the employee a “crackhead” and revealing his history to his sales contacts.
William Halliday was a sales agent for Van Toen Innovations (VTI), an Ontario company that located vehicles to meet clients’ requirements and obtained preferential pricing. It operated through a website, TransDeal.ca. As a sales agent, Halliday received client names from VTI and used his contacts at automobile dealerships to find a deal for the clients. Contacts were usually senior sales personnel or principals at the dealerships. Once a deal was made, TransDeal would receive a payment from the dealership and Halliday would receive a percentage of that as a commission. Halliday was hired in February 2009.
VTI instructed its sales agents to use business cards with the TransDeal email address and their personal cellphone number. It also forbade deals outside of the TransDeal system, even if agents generated their own deals.
Halliday worked another job during the day but spent about six hours a day doing TransDeal work on his lunch hour and after work. He started with the names of three contacts at dealerships but developed that into a list of 25 contacts, with whom he had “very personal” relationships involving professional and personal trust. Many contacts and clients said he was the “best guy” they had.
Long-time drug addiction before being hired
Before Halliday started working for TransDeal, he was addicted to crack cocaine for 23 years. His addiction caused him to lose jobs, his family and friends, and he had periods of homelessness. Halliday participated in 14 residential addiction recovery programs over the years, with many relapses but by the time he joined TransDeal he had been sober for eight months. He remained clean and sober during his employment with TransDeal, with the exception of two weekends in the summer of 2009.
Halliday got along well with one of the owners of VTI, Geoffrey VanToen, who supervised him. In March 2009, Van Toen invited Halliday out for a drink but Halliday declined, explaining he was a recovering addict. Over the next few months, Halliday revealed his history of addiction and Van Toen was supportive of his recovery efforts.
Halliday’s first weekend relapse in the summer didn’t affect his work since dealerships are closed on Sundays, but Halliday told Van Toen about it. Van Toen met up with Halliday to pay him money owed to him, but Van Toen told Halliday he wouldn’t get paid unless he checked into a detox program. After being turned away from a few detox sites because admissions weren’t done that way, Van Toen drove Halliday home and gave him a partial payment. Halliday began going to support meetings.
Van Toen claimed that in August 2009, he had to pay money to drug dealers after Halliday called him — once to retrieve his laptop and another time to retrieve his cellphone. Halliday denied these events happened, except for when Van Toen drove him around to detox centres.
On Nov. 14, 2009, Van Toen called Halliday, asking if he had any deals to close that week. Afterwards, Halliday contacted another sales agent who told him she hadn’t been paid in a month. Halliday had not been paid for a couple of weeks himself and assume there was a cash flow problem. However, when he called Van Toen to inquire, Van Toen took offence and called Halliday a “f---ing crackhead,” saying the company had done everything to help him and he would “get paid when he got paid.”
Halliday followed up with emails to Van Toen about the money he was owed. Van Toen called the emails “insulting” and replied that Halliday had made the company some money that month, but nothing else in the months preceding.
Halliday was shocked at Van Toen’s insult as he had been clean for four months and it felt like a “slap in the face.” It got worse when, a few days later, another sales agent forwarded him an email from Van Toen to other sales agents stating that “we suspect Bill has been stealing from us for months (he is a former crackhead – not to put that against him) who is actually paid up to date.” The email further said they were calling leads to verify his figures.
Halliday felt ashamed and embarrassed, as well as discriminated against because he felt Van Toen was perpetuating the assumption that crackheads are thieves. He emailed Van Toen to say he was resigning immediately and advised all contacts with whom he had existing deals that he was no longer representing TransDeals.ca, with the hope he could do business with them in the future.
Halliday contacted Van Toen’s father, Charles Van Toen, who was also an owner of VIT and TransDeals, to explain the reason for his resignation and to ask for the money still owed to him. He also explained he would invoice dealerships directly on any deals until TransDeal’s debt to him was paid. Charles Van Toen replied that the insulting email “should not have happened and we apologize for it.” However, he went on to say that any deals currently being negotiated were the company’s property and “further action” would be taken if Halliday tried to act outside the contract.
Shortly thereafter, Halliday began receiving calls from contacts about emails they had received from Geoffrey Van Toen, which stated there may be possible legal action against Halliday. The email also said the company had worked with him to “curtail his crack addiction” but “he has now slipped and made short cuts with a few dealers and clients. He also made physical threats towards myself and our company.” The forwarded email showed it was sent to “undisclosed recipients,” and Halliday believed it had been sent to all of his dealership contacts.
In early December 2009, TransDeal indicated it would like Halliday to work for the company again, but Halliday declines, saying he had been affected emotionally by the situation and was seeking professional help to deal with it. He didn’t feel he could work for TransDeal again.
Sales agent suffered relapse
Halliday tried to set up his own business as an automobile broker but he was unsuccessful. By April 2010 he was in full relapse and lost his business, his day job and his home.
Several months later, in October 2010, Van Toen sent Halliday an email that used foul language and blamed him for the failure of his business, saying “there is a reason everyone hates/given up on you.” Halliday filed a human rights complaint for discrimination based on his disability of an addiction shortly thereafter.
In May 2011, Halliday encountered Van Toen on the street. He claimed Van Toen threatened to kill him, saying he shouldn’t have filed the complaint. Halliday called the police and ultimately Van Toen was charged for uttering death threats.
The tribunal acknowledged Halliday had “approximately two decades of addiction to crack cocaine, relapses and participation in numerous treatment programs” that constituted a physical and/or mental disability under the Ontario Human Rights Code. The tribunal also found this disability was associated with stigmatization, making him vulnerable.
The tribunal noted Van Toen never apologized for sending the emails and avoided Halliday’s attempts to get an explanation nor gave any legitimate reason. The closest the company came to an apology was when Charles Van Toen emailed Halliday to “apologize” but ended up threatening him with legal action, said the tribunal. And despite TransDeal’s claims Halliday was a contractor, the tribunal determined the company dictated and controlled an extensive part of his work and the discrimination and harassment was in employment.
Additionally, TransDeal made no effort to investigate the sudden resignation of Halliday or his allegations of harassing emails and comments by Van Toen or limit the harm to Halliday caused by the emails.
“There is no evidence of any attempt by (TransDeal) to investigate or by (the Van Toens) to retract or follow-up on the emails sent in order to repair or minimize the damage done to (Halliday’s) reputation or to acknowledge or address in any way the poisoned work environment,” said the tribunal.
In addition to the harassment, discrimination and harm to Halliday’s reputation and professional opportunities, the tribunal also found Van Toen’s threat against Halliday in May 2011 was a threat of reprisal for filing the complaint, another violation of the code.
TransDeal, VTI and Geoffrey Van Toen were ordered — jointly and severally — to pay Halliday $25,000 for damage to dignity feelings and self-respect and $4,524 for lost earnings from his resignation on Nov. 19, 2009, to when his own business was up and running in February 2010, for a total award of $29,524.
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