Mental disability not a factor in termination decision, says employer
The British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal has dismissed a worker’s claim of discrimination related to a suspension and firing for having no evidence of any connection to his mental disability.
The worker was an on-call firefighter for the Regional District of Central Okanagan, working with the district’s North Westside Fire Rescue (NWFR). In 2015, he was appointed to be the on-call fire chief for a small rural community within the district.
On May 21, 2020, the district suspended the worker for withholding pertinent information about operations, intentionally disseminating false and misleading information to the news media and firefighters with emails and social media posts, and failing to discipline another firefighter who also disseminated false and misleading information to the media.
The suspension was indefinite and the worker wasn’t to engage in any firefighting duties, attend any training sessions or meetings, or communicate with NWFR firefighters or represent to them that he was acting in a capacity as a fire chief. His suspension letter warned that any violation of these terms could result in further disciplinary measures, including summary dismissal for just cause.
The worker filed a prohibited action complaint with WorkSafeBC, alleging the suspension was a response to his raising occupational health and safety concerns. However, WorkSafeBC found that the suspension was “not in any way related to, or tainted by, the worker’s participation in protected activities, but was solely due to [his] conduct and poor judgement, particularly in his capacity as fire chief.”
Worker diagnosed with PTSD
In July 2020, the worker was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) following a psychological assessment. He filed a WorkSafeBC claim for a mental health disorder, claiming that he had been “flooded with flashback of traumatic incidents he attended and is struggling with his emotions” since the suspension. WorkSafeBC accepted his claim for PTSD.
On Nov. 11, the worker attended an automobile accident scene. He told a firefighter who arrived that someone might be inside the car and asked the captain on the scene if he was going to send someone to see if someone had been ejected. He also talked to the captain about other procedures and took photos of the captain extinguishing the fire without personal protective equipment.
According to the worker, the scene brought back past trauma he had experienced and he had difficulty controlling his emotions at the scene.
The on-scene captain and acting deputy chief reported the worker’s conduct at the accident scene, which the district determined was in violation of the terms of his suspension. The district terminated his employment on Nov. 20 for just cause from breaching the suspension restrictions.
The worker filed a human rights application alleging discrimination in employment, claiming that the district terminated his employment for actions that were affected by his mental disability. He said that the district knew of his mental disability because he had told them in 2019 that he was experiencing workplace stress after filing a bullying and harassment complaint, although his WorkSafeBC claim had said the stress he experienced was distinct from the traumatic incidents that caused his PTSD.
No connection between termination and worker’s disability: employer
The district applied to dismiss the complaint because there was no connection between the worker’s mental disability and his termination.
The tribunal considered whether the worker had a reasonable prospect of success in proving a connection between his mental disability and the termination of his employment. The district didn’t dispute that the worker had been diagnosed with PTSD or that he experienced an adverse impact when he was terminated, but it argued that he didn’t explain how his PTSD contributed to the conduct for which he was suspended and that for which he was later dismissed.
The tribunal noted that, in a previous decision, it had found that “stress, in itself, is not a disability for the purposes of the [BC Human Rights Code].” The worker had told the district he was stressed, but the PTSD diagnosis came after his suspension and the worker’s WorkSafeBC claim distinguished between his stress and the PTSD, said the tribunal.
The tribunal also found that the worker hadn’t explained how his behaviour was uncharacteristic compared to his prior conduct as a firefighter before his PTSD diagnosis, given “multiple instances in his employment of him exercising judgement in ways conflicting with respondent’s expectations.”
The tribunal determined that the worker hadn’t identified a connection between the adverse impact of his dismissal and his PTSD beyond conjecture. As a result, it dismissed the worker’s complaint in its entirety. See Satterthwaite v. Regional District of Central Okanagan and another, 2025 BCHRT 146.
