Employee refused to work until employer paid his full wages; employer responded with insults against his ethnicity and place of origin
An Ontario employer must pay more than $8,000 to an employee who left after he was called a “Muslim terrorist” and other names, the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal has ruled.
Fadi Kannaiti was hired as an office administrator on June 4, 2013, by Patricia Allen for her paralegal company in Toronto, Allen’s Executive Management Services. Initially, the hiring was on a trial basis for $10 per hour, but after two months Allen told Kannaiti she liked his work and wanted him on a permanent basis.
Kannaiti said he was interested in continuing to work for the company, but he needed to be paid more. Allen agreed to find a way to pay him more and enrolled the company in the Employment Service Training Incentive, a wage subsidy program funded by the Ontario Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities. Under an agreement with the program, the company would provide training to Kannaiti, Kannaiti would be paid $12 per hour, and the provincial government would reimburse the company for half that amount once time sheets were submitted.
Sometimes Kannaiti noticed Allen made rude and obnoxious comments to him and others in the office, but Kannaiti didn’t think much of them. However, in August 2013, the company began paying him only a part of the wages he was owed and forced him to sign time sheets that stated he had been paid in full. Allen told Kannaiti he would be paid his full wages once the government reimbursed the company for its share.
However, Kannaiti continued to receive less than his wages and contacted the government agency in charge of the program. The agency contacted Allen, who said she would pay Kannaiti. However, by Sept. 3, 2013, Kannaiti still hadn’t received his full pay and his unpaid wages added up to more than $3,000.
Kannaiti decided he wouldn’t work if he wasn’t going to be fully paid and told Allen he was going to take a few days off. On Sept. 10, he returned to the office to speak with Allen about his unpaid wages, but Allen yelled at him and insulted him. Kannaiti left without getting a chance to talk.
Kannaiti exchanged some phone calls and text messages with Allen and he agreed to come to the office again on Sept. 13. When he arrived, Allen wasn’t there and Allen’s business partner said she didn’t want to be part of the dispute. About 30 minutes later, Allen arrived and acted like Kannaiti was late for work, telling him to start working on documents. Kannaiti responded that he wanted to be paid first and Allen started yelling at him.
According to Kannaiti, Allen said she had told people “what you had done” and she should call them to “chop off your head.” She also yelled, “you are only an immigrant, you are not a citizen,” though Kannaiti was born in Canada. Kannaiti testified that he asked Allen again about his pay and she once again yelled at him, saying “I will not pay. Go cry about it you Muslim terrorist.” Kannaiti claimed she called him a terrorist a few more times and said he was from “a terrorist country” before he left.
Kannaiti said that as he left, Allen’s business partner was standing there. He realized she had heard everything but had done nothing. He testified he was “devastated” and felt afraid to reveal his origin, ethnicity or religion going forward. He found it difficult to sleep for a couple of weeks afterwards and it caused emotional pain. He also had to borrow money and fell behind in his rent.
Kannaiti eventually reported the incident to the police, who advised him to file a human rights complaint.
Kannaiti also filed a claim with the Ontario Ministry of Labour for unpaid wages, termination pay and vacation pay. In April 2014 an employment standards officer ordered Allen to pay Kannaiti more than $4,000, but a year later Kannaiti still had not received anything.
The tribunal found Allen’s aggressive behaviour towards Kannaiti constituted harassment. Though it may have been a retaliation for Kannaiti’s assertion of his right to be paid, the refusal to pay itself wasn’t based on his race, religion, or any other protected ground under the Ontario Human Rights Code. However, they way Allen retaliated was discrimination under the code, said the tribunal.
The tribunal found Allen’s statements that he was “only an immigrant” and called him a “Muslim terrorist” were clearly based on race, ancestry, place of origin, citizenship, and ethnic origin and were “so egregious and contemptuous as to amount to discrimination.”
The tribunal also found Kannaiti was entitled to monetary compensation in the higher range of damages because Allen’s comments “were particularly repugnant and had a serious impact.” In addition, Kannaiti was entitled to compensation for loss of earnings from the company’s failure to pay him what he was owed until the end of the training incentive placement agreement, which would have been another two weeks until the end of September 2013.
