A B.C. father who couldn’t get a highchair for his baby at two different Earls restaurants has filed a human rights complaint against the company.
Phillip Ryan claims he brought his one-year-old to an Earls in Vancouver in February 2015 and asked for a highchair, but was told by the manager that it’s not their policy to provide them.
He said the same thing happened at a different location in the city three weeks later.
Ryan launched a complaint with the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal in July, and the chair ruled last week that it can be heard, despite an attempt by Earls to have it thrown out.
The company acknowledged only about half of its locations offer highchairs, but said staff offered to accommodate Ryan’s family by giving them a booth.
“Our restaurants are not all the same – they are designed for our established guests in that location,” spokesperson Cate Simpson said in an email.
“Where we see a market changing, we do our best to accommodate this market. In some cases, this may include the addition of highchairs and booster chairs.”
There is no policy prohibiting highchairs, Simpson added, and parents are always welcome to bring their own portable highchairs into Earls restaurants.
Ryan claims that by not providing the chairs, which he considers the safest option for seating his baby, the company discriminated against his family.
The company denies that charge, insisting it offered reasonable alternatives to the family’s “preferred seating choice,” according to a Human Rights Tribunal document. It also claims that while Ryan left the restaurant the first time he couldn’t get a highseat, he stayed and dined the second time.
Though tribunal chair Bernd Walter refused to throw Ryan’s complaint out, he urged the father and Earls to resolve their issues without a human rights hearing.
