B.C. Human Rights Tribunal awards more than $20K to woman who was fired after she disclosed her pregnancy

A stock image shows a pregnant woman holding her stomach.

A woman who was fired from her job at a recruiting company, shortly after she disclosed she was pregnant, has been awarded more than $20,000 in damages.

Seema Lall’s pregnancy was a factor in the termination of her 26-month employment with Apidel Technologies, according to a decision B.C.’s Human Rights Tribunal released earlier this month.

The ruling explains that Lall began working for the U.S.-based company as an independent contractor in July 2018, while she was living in Guyana, before she moved to Canada in October of that year and became a full-time employee.

“Ms. Lall said she was a business development representative and her role involved working from home, calling and emailing prospective clients to arrange sales meetings. The parties agree that Ms. Lall was being groomed for the role of a manager and that the role would involve some travel to the United States,” reads the decision by tribunal member Edward Takayanagi.

According to the decision, conflict between Lall and her employer first emerged nearly one year after she immigrated to Canada—as outlined in an email her supervisor sent on Aug. 5, 2019.

A copy of the email was included in the decision, and urges Lall to apply for a visa to travel to the U.S.—a process her supervisor implied she should have started months prior.

“Also—your call numbers look low. Please work on call volume and talk time,” the email concluded.

Other than that email, the tribunal found there was no evidence from Apidel that Lall’s visa situation or work performance were big enough issues to put her employment in jeopardy.

In addition, Takayanagi pointed to several reasons why Lall would have delayed the application process, including “her need to first obtain Canadian Permanent Residency, the financial cost of the application, having little time to complete the application form, and not believing there was any urgency.”

Three days after receiving the email from her supervisor, the ruling explains, Lall learned she was five-months pregnant with her second child—which she informed her employer of in mid-August, shortly after applying for a visa.

Not even one month later, she was fired via a Skype call and told that her termination was the result of slow business in Canada.

However, Takayanagi found that Lall’s pregnancy was a “significant factor” in her firing.

“While I accept that other factors may have influenced the decision, I find that Ms. Lall’s pregnancy was an operative factor in her termination,” the tribunal member wrote.

Apidel has been ordered to “cease and refrain” from discriminating against an employee on the ground of sex, specifically pregnancy, in the future.

The company also must pay Lall $7,500 “as compensation for injury to her dignity, feelings and self-respect,” as well as an additional $12,720 to compensate for the wages she lost before giving birth in January 2020, according to the ruling.

“I order the respondents pay Ms. Lall post-judgment interest on the wage loss and injury to dignity awards until paid in full, based on the rates set out in the Court Order Interest Act,” Takayanagi concluded.