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'Fact is Stranger than Fiction'

Progress and Respect leave some behind and they sometimes own businesses

Mr Scott is an international business owner who has recently acquired a hotel in Sas- katchewan. The property was previously Certified and the Employees are covered by a Collective Agreement. Mr Scott does not cooperate with the Union and often has been heard yelling at the Union Representative and kicking him off the property.

Ms Kuric applied to work at the front desk of the Hotel. She had an interview with Mr Scott during which Mr Scott asked her questions about her nationality and asked if she was married. All through the interview, he blew cigarette smoke in her face. Ms Kuric was hired and was quickly promoted to full time, then to performing the night audit duties.

For the first portion of Ms Kuric’s employment, Mr Scott was living in another town and would call in often. He was rarely on the premises.

Throughout the course of her employment, Ms Kuric alleged that Mr Scott regularly swore at her, yelled at her, made inappropriate comments regarding her sex, touched her in an unwelcome manner, and threatened her. The events culminated in Mr Scott insisting that Ms Kuric return to work early and against Doctor’s advice after she had been assaulted at work. Ms Kuric filed a grievance and an Arbitration ensued.

Mr Scott participated initially in the Arbitration process and had representation. He was belligerent during the process and insisted that he was not going to speak to the Union Repre- sentative. In the lead up to the Arbitration, Mr Scott’s representatives suddenly withdrew and gave notice that they were no longer acting on his behalf. Multiple calls were made to Mr Scott and numerous letters were sent. The Union submitted it’s written argument and the Board ordered that any submission on behalf of the Employer needed to be received by a certain date. No submission was received. Mr Scott failed to participate further with the Arbitration process and it eventually went forward without an Employer representative at all.

Verbal Abuse

For the first while after Ms Kuric was hired, Mr Scott communicated exclusively by phone. He would call her and was de- grading and intimidating from the start. Ms Kuric described Mr Scott’s language as getting progressively worse – he started with using the f*word in almost every sentence and then moved on to more personal attacks as time went by. He would regularly call Ms Kuric ‘stupid’, ‘lazy’ and a b***h’ while accusing her of not looking after his business. Mr Scott talked to a lot of staff that same way, but Ms Kuric was the one that dealt with the majority of his calls as it was part of her job to answer the phone. Mr Scott was fluent in Portuguese and cursed at her in that language. Ms Kuric understood the language and could tell what he was saying to her.

Unwelcome Touching/ Comments

On New Years Eve, Mr Scott visited the hotel while Ms Kuric was working. He was leaving and Ms Kuric needed to lock the door behind him. She followed Mr Scott to the door and he turned around quickly, grabbed her and kissed her on the lips ‘using his tongue’. Mr Scott squeezed Ms Kuric so hard that she said she could not breathe. She finally managed to escape his grasp and his only response was to laugh, wave at her and leave.

Mr Scott began spending more time at the Hotel and was seen constantly yelling at Ms Kuric, other staff and patrons. He appeared to enjoy degrading others. Ms Kuric felt that she could not do anything right.

Onenight, Mr Scott came to the front desk while Ms Kuric was working. He had a woman on his arm and he told Ms Kuric she should join them in his suite for a ‘threesome’. He told her that once she had a man like him, she would never sleep with another man. He proceeded to invite several other employees to join them in his suite.

Assault

Mr Scott had a tendency to hire employees that were down on their luck,let them live in the Hotel but not provide them with any pay. The Hotel had previously had a normal amount of turnover but under Mr Scott’s management had nearly 100% turnover.

One night, Ms Kuric was working the front and a couple of customers wanted to cash out small VLT tickets. As she was getting the change, the men assaulted and robbed her. The police came and told her she could call an ambulance and go to the hospital. Mr Scott came to the scene and began feeling Ms Kuric all over and saying that there was nothing wrong with her. During the robbery, a quarter was left on the counter and Mr Scott became upset about that. He did not want Ms Kuric to go to the Hospital.

The ambulance came and Ms Kuric went with them against Mr Scott’s wishes. Mr Scott was upset as he would have to look after the desk and called Ms Kurica ‘f***g b***ch’.

Ms Kuric was treated for whiplash injuries from being knocked around. She gave the Employer a note advising that she could not work for two weeks.

Mr Scott called Ms Kuric the next day and asked her to work. Ms Kuric told Mr Scott she was on WorkersCompensation and had to attend Doctor’s appointments. Mr Scott asked her to come in and said that he would pay her under the table. He said that most Doctor’s appointments take only half an hour and then told her to come in ‘right f***ng now!’

Reaction

The Union read a letter from Mr Scott that they received in response to the grievances filed. In the letter Mr Scott said Ms Kuric was a vicious malicious liar and he threatened to sue the Union for 4.8million dollars if Ms Kuric did not withdraw the grievance. He threatened to up his suit to 10 million dollars should the matter go public.

Ms Kuric was not able to receive her record of employment from Mr Scott and Mr Scott refused to allow the Union Representative on the property to resolve the matter. Ms Kuric did not receive the proper pay and when she called to figure it out with the payroll clerk, Mr Scott inter- cepted the call and hung up on her.

Arbitration Board

The Board accepted the evidence of Ms Kuric, that in the course of her employment Mr Scott subjected her to repeated harassment which was unwelcome, humiliating, insulting and degrading. They found Mr Scott’s conduct on New Years Eve was sexual harassment and that his conduct with respect to offering a ‘three- some’ was clearly inappropriate and constituted sexual harassment. Other incidents reported by Ms Kuric clearly was verbal harassment.

The Board concluded that the actions of Mr Scott with relation to the comments made about Ms Kuric’s sex breached the Human Rights Legislation as well. Further they concluded that Mr Scott’s actions had breeched the Occupational Health and Safety Act.The grievance was allowed and penalty was to be discussed in further proceedings.

'Post Secondary Assault'

A case illustrating that some lessons are never learned and sexual assault still happens.

Jane was an international student who applied for a PhD program in Canada. She had a religious upbringing and had never been alone in the company of a man that was not a relative. She travelled to the City where she was to study and Mike, her soon to be instructor picked her up at the airport.

Mike was a new instructor at the University and had been born, raised and completed his education in Europe. He had a wife and two children.

Upon meeting her, Mike made several unwelcome comments about her physical appear- ance including that her legs looked pretty with high heels on. He made comments that he was surprised at her clothing as he thought she would be more modestly dressed.

Mike offered to take her to dinner to celebrate her arrival to Canada. After dinner he drove Jane to her hotel and insisted on helping her carry her bags to her room. Before leaving the room, Mike approached her, gave her a hug and kissed her on the cheek. Mike explained that was the way two people left each other in Western society. Jane was extremely uncomfortable with the contact as it exceeded what she was accustomed to based on her upbringing, but Mike was her instructor, she was new to the Country and so she did not say anything.

Mike told Jane that he would pick her up the next day to help her get established. Mike picked her up and drove her to a bank to setup a new account as well as other errands. In the course of their travels, Mike told Jane how elegant she looked and made other similar comments while staring intently at her breasts. Jane was very offended but did not say anything as she did not know what to do.

Mike created a number of situations over the course of a year where he was alone with Jane in her residence. Jane did not know what to do when they were alone, she tried to keep the conversation focused on her studies. Jane was not comfortable with having a man in her apartment with her alone, she felt she could not ask him to leave.

Jane was studying in Canada with the financial backing of her Country and as such, her family was responsible for the costs should she fail to return with a degree. Her father passed away while she was gone and so the penalty for default of payment would be imprisonment for her brother.

Mike continued to force sexual contact upon Jane, and during their second encounter, he began to kiss her, led her to her bed, and took off some of her clothing. Jane protested and Mike appeared to come to his senses. He began to apologize and left.

The next day after the incident,Mike brought Jane a couple of pairs of boots and asked her to accept one as a gift. She accepted because she thought it would be rude to refuse it.

Mike’s behaviour escalated and during one incident he took off all of his clothing and ‘lay on top of her’. Jane protested and said such contact was not appropriate because he was her instructor. He told her not to worry about it and said that nobody needed to know. Jane talked about how she valued her virginity and said she did not want to do anything and had to resort to shielding her genitalia with her hands. Mike did not listen to her objections and continued his attack on her. Mike finished his attack and got up and had a shower. He began to apologize to her and left her apartment.

Over the course of a few months, Mike orchestrated several meetings where he would be alone with Jane and even showed up to her apartment and waited in the hallway for her to return one day. She was startled when she saw him there and invited him in as she did not want to appear rude and did not want to jeopardize her eduction.

Jane did not know that she could make a complaint against Mike for what he was doing to her, either to the University or to the Police. In her Country, the blame for being alone with a man that was not a relative would fall on her. It would come down to her word against his and he was a respected instructor and she was a foreign student. In her experience,her complaint would not be investigated and would result in a loss of respect for her and her family.

Further, she was afraid that Mike would influence her studies and she would be unsuccessful in her degree. Her brother did not have the money to pay for her schooling so she knew that would result in his imprisonment.

The final incident between them ended in Mike getting naked, taking her clothes off and then ‘laying’ on her. Jane said that Mike became much more aggressive as time went on. She said he disregarded or minimized her objections and continued to try to force sexual intercourse with her. She continued to object and attempt to shield her genitalia with her hands to prevent intercourse. Afterwards, Jane noticed blood on the bed and believed she was no longer a virgin. She was devastated as in her Country that would make her undesirable and unsuitable for marriage.

Mike gave her a referral to his wife’s gynecologist when she expressed her concerns to him. She did not go as she was afraid it would be known that she was no longer a virgin. Some time passed and she began to experience physical symptoms from the stress the situation caused her. She was unable to sleep at night and her grades suffered. She finally went to the Doctor with a panic attack and told him of what had caused the stress. The doctor referred her to a Psychologist who in turn referred her to the internal University complaint process.

Some promises that Mike had made to her regarding her program went unfulfilled. Her PhD program was in jeopardy so she decided to apply to another University and transferred.

After an investigation, it was concluded that Jane’s complaint was founded, that she had been sexually harassed and assaulted and they terminated Mike. During the investigation, another incident came to light between Mike and a different international student whom he had admitted attempting to kiss. An apology to the student was accepted as remedy for that situation.

Mike and his Union filed a grievance regarding the discipline. An arbitration followed. During the course of the arbitration, Jane submitted evidence regarding Mike’s physical characteristics that indicated she had seen him naked. She provided detailed and elaborate accounts of their interactions. During extensive cross examination, some details of her testimony were somewhat shaky. Mike testified and denied any sexual contact and maintained that he could not recall much of their interactions. He claimed that she was a poor student and was making the allegations up. The Union argued that since the complaint was brought over a year after the fact, that they were outside the time frame indicated in the Policy and thus should not be considered.

The arbitrator determined that due to the extenuating circumstances, the one year time frame was not a consideration. He further found that Jane was more credible than Mike for a variety of reasons, and concluded that she had been sexual assaulted and that the discipline was justified.