By Kelly Sinoski
Vancouver Sun
Copyright 2008 Vancouver Sun
CLEARWATER, B.C. — A part-time Clearwater paramedic who lost more than a year’s worth of work because he has multiple sclerosis has been granted more than $22,500 in compensation for injury to dignity, feelings and self-respect.
The B.C. Human Rights Tribunal ruled last week that while the B.C. Ambulance Service had a valid concern about Peter Cassidy’s ability to do his job, it didn’t treat him “fairly or with due respect.”
It ruled last week that BCAS and a manager, Doug Garland, were jointly liable for discrimination against Cassidy. A complaint against another manager, Bob Gallaher, was dismissed.
Cassidy, who had worked for the ambulance service since 1999, filed the discrimination complaint after he was told in May 2005 he could no longer work as a paramedic because he couldn’t feel a pulse as a result of diminished sensation in his fingers.
Paramedics are required, as a basic part of their job when attending patients, to palpate pulses.
While the tribunal noted this could expose patients to “unacceptable risks or harm,” it said the ambulance service should have found other work for Cassidy, such as full shifts as a driver-only paramedic — a job he was only allowed to do on a regular basis more than a year later, in June 2006.
By its actions, the tribunal said, the ambulance service subjected Cassidy to “unnecessary frustration, anxiety and financial security and hardship.”
“The BCAS’s failure to deal fairly with Mr. Cassidy did make him, in his words, paranoid about its motivations, which over time rendered him less cooperative than he had otherwise been,” tribunal member Lindsay Lyster said in a written report.
Lyster found Cassidy had acted reasonably in disclosing his condition to his employer in November 2003 and discussing his limitation with his co-workers and supervisor. He also cooperated with the service by going through several fitness tests and other requests.
Yet BCAS did not treat Cassidy fairly in the process it adopted, Lyster said. It told him he could continue working as an attending paramedic for about a year despite his limitations, only to inform him in May 2005 that he was no longer permitted to work.
This was done by a phone call, which in effect treated Cassidy “as a safety risk, rather than human being to whom the employer owed a duty to accommodate,” Lyster said.
BCAS also took active steps to revoke Cassidy’s paramedic’s licence. There was no record of disciplinary issues or other problems related to Cassidy before he was told not to come into work.
Lyster noted that Garland was “individually liable for the discrimination experienced by Cassidy.”
“At various times he said and did things which demonstrate real animus against Cassidy,” the tribunal said.
“By his actions he delayed the effective resolution of Mr. Cassidy’s situation, thereby harming Mr. Cassidy both financially and emotionally and affecting his human dignity as a disabled employee seeking accommodation.”