Union concerned manager's workplace Easter egg hunt discriminated against certain employees due to religion and disability
This instalment takes us to a workplace with a manager who came up with the idea of celebrating Easter with an Easter egg hunt in the workplace — much to the dismay of the union.
Rob Peixoto was the local area manager for Canada Post’s operations in Brantford, Ont. He enjoyed acknowledging and celebrating holidays and events at the workplace, so as Easter 2016 approached, he came up with an idea to get staff involved in the spirit of the holiday.
On March 24, 2016, Peixoto posted a notice with a photograph of an Easter egg. The notice wished everyone a happy Easter and said that 10 Easter eggs were hidden throughout the letter carrier depot “in plain sight.” The notice went on to say that employees could look for the eggs and any that were found could be presented to Peixoto to exchange for a gift card. Peixoto himself provided the eggs and gift card — Canada Post itself had nothing to do with the event.
The Brantford local chapter of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers filed a grievance complaining of Peixoto’s Easter-themed event. It alleged that it discriminated against certain employees in two ways.
First, the union claimed that employees who weren’t at work that day because of a temporary disability suffered discrimination because they weren’t able to participate in the event and get an opportunity to score the gift cards. Because of their disabilities, they were denied the chance at gift cards and therefore treated differently than employees who were able to go to work that day.
Second, the union argued employees who weren’t Christian and objected to participating in the event for religious reasons also weren’t given a fair opportunity at getting the gift cards — not to mention the potential offence they might take due to the favouring of a Christian holiday for a workplace celebration.
You Make the Call
Was the union’s claim of discrimination unfounded?
OR
Did the Canada Post manager discriminate against employees based on disability and religion?
If you said the union’s discrimination claim was unfounded, you’re correct. The arbitrator noted that a claim of discrimination is “personal, not collective.” Even if it is a group of individuals with a common characteristic being discriminated against, there must be a complaint of differential treatment that requires the company to justify the conduct causing the alleged discrimination.
In this case, there were no actual complaints of discrimination from employees — just the grievance from the union. As a result, there was no real indication of discriminatory behaviour by Peixoto or Canada Post, said the arbitrator.
The arbitrator found that the union’s grievance consisted completely of speculation and the potential discriminatory effect of the event was dubious. There was no evidence anyone missed the event because of a disability, and the nature of the activity wasn’t tied to the religious aspect of Easter.
“There may not have been anyone absent on the day in question because of disability, as opposed to all of the other possible reasons for absence,” the arbitrator said. “There may not have been anyone sufficiently offended by the most secular of activities loosely related to a Christian religious holiday to be prevented from participating.”
Though anyone absent because of disability might find it unfortunate to miss the Easter egg hunt, the arbitrator said any discriminatory effect could be “happenstance,” since “such persons will always be disadvantaged in certain respects as compared to those in attendance.” Still, there could also be advantages to being absent on certain days, and Canada Post couldn’t be expected to deal with “every single difference between those who attend at work and those who do not because of disability,” the arbitrator said.
The arbitrator noted that even though the event was removed from the religious observance of Easter, it was still possible someone could be offended by the fact it was tied to Easter. If that happened, Canada Post might have had to apologize, but it was unlikely any damages would result. As it was, no-one appeared to be offended.
The arbitrator found the Easter egg hunt at Canada Post’s Brantford facility did not discriminate against certain employees because of disability and religion. The union’s grievance was dismissed.
For more information see:
•Canada Post Corp. and CUPE (508-12-00108), Re, 2016 CarswellNat 4888 (Can. Arb.).
