...born with the gift of laughter and a sense that the world was mad

B.C."rights" apparatchiks strike again: Another less than Solomonic ruling from those geniuses in B.C. From the National Post:

VANCOUVER - A British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal panel was accused of "pervasive bias" and illogic after deciding yesterday that a company building Vancouver's rapid transit extension discriminated against a group of temporary workers from Latin America, even though they were paid at a rate comparable to their Canadian colleagues.

In a 71-page ruling, the rights panel decided 30 temporary workers -- from Brazil, Colombia and Costa Rica--are entitled to millions of dollars in adjusted salary compensation, plus $10,000 each for unspecified "injury to dignity."

A construction workers' union that brought forward the discrimination complaint "has established that the race, colour, ancestry and place of origin of members of the complainant group were factors in the adverse treatment they suffered," the panel found.

The workers were treated for two years as though they were "worth less and less worthy than other employees because they were Latin American," the tribunal said.

Hardly, says the Vancouverbased lawyer who represented SELI Canada Inc. and SNCLavalin Constructors (Pacific) Inc., partners in the joint-venture company building the 19-kilometre Canada Line rapid transit extension in Greater Vancouver. Due to be completed next year, the Canada Line will connect downtown Vancouver to the city of Richmond and to the Vancouver International Airport.

Peter Gall denies that the 30 workers suffered any indignity on the project. On the contrary, he says, they were all well treated and well compensated.

The union that took the employment discrimination complaint to the human rights tribunal did not even represent the Latin Americans in the workplace. The 30 men had voted to remove themselves from the Construction and Specialized Workers Union, Local 1611 (CSWU) in 2006.

Regardless, the union was allowed to proceed with its human rights complaint...

Posted by: scaramouche at 21:57 | link | comments

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