Original article by Howard Levitt posted in the Financial Post on May 7th, 2019.
The sins of the fathers will be visited on the sons by the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal. Or so Jason Graca recently discovered.
Having worked as a member of the kitchen staff of London, Ont.-based Manito’s Rotisserie and Sandwich, Elizabeth Bento looked forward to returning after a two-year hiatus.
Her work honeymoon proved to be short-lived.
Reporting to Joseph Graca, the kitchen manager, Bento became the object of his regular observations about her body and those of other women. Joseph would volunteer that she was “big”; that she had a cute face but needed to lose weight. His daughter, he would add, had joined Jenny Craig and had lost much weight. She too, he suggested, would benefit from joining.
The statements, often accompanied by crude sexual intentions, were unrelenting. When Joseph would bump into her, he would comment that that it was no wonder that her ex-husband had left her. On other occasions, he would describe Bento’s physique and those of other women in demeaning and graphic terms. The behaviour was aggravated when he drank.
Bento repeatedly asked Joseph to stop the comments. To no avail. He told her that he could do whatever he wanted in his kitchen. Her complaints to management about Graca fell on deaf ears. As it happened, the owner of the restaurant was Joseph’s son, Jason. His standard response was to slough off any responsibility, making it clear that he could do nothing about his father. In fact, Jason himself suggested that Bento would get a raise — but it was conditional upon her agreeing to go out to dinner with him.
A showdown soon ensued: Bento finally confronted Jason about Joseph’s misconduct in his presence. Joseph interrupted Bento, accusing her of having “attitude.” After Jason added that this was not the time or place to have the conversation, Bento became emotional and left the premises. In reply to her subsequent text the following day to ascertain her status, Jason replied that he could not have her back.
Bento filed a claim with the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal. In response, both Jason and Joseph maintained that Bento was exaggerating, that there were inconsistencies in her evidence and that it was she who initiated discussions about her physique.
Josée Bouchard, the tribunal’s vice-chair, disbelieved them. It was clear that Joseph’s misconduct toward Benton had occurred and that Jason had failed in his duty to investigate and address his father’s behaviour. It was no defence to say that he had no control over his parent. This culpability was compounded by Jason himself inviting Bento for dinner.
Bento was awarded hefty damages and lost wages by the tribunal and the restaurant. As well, both Jason and Joseph were found jointly liable.
This case is a reminder to employers, regardless of size, about the cost of a casual attitude to workplace misconduct. The following measures are critical to averting such an outcome:
– Post a policy: An employer’s commitment to a workplace free of harassment should be anchored in a written policy that is distributed to staff. This shows an employer’s awareness of its legal obligations to a workplace that is free of sexual harassment and its expectations of staff to comply;
– Spell out the complaint procedure: An employee should be able to easily access information on how to file a complaint and what will happen;
– Treat every complaint seriously: it is not an excuse to say: “what I can I do, he’s my dad” or “boys will be boys;”
– Professionally investigate the complaint: If the business does not have the competency to investigate, then it should retain an investigator to do so. As well, the investigation should be started and finished as promptly as possible;
– Keep the employee informed: The employee should not be left in the dark about the process. Interim steps to secure her well-being should be taken;
– Impose disciplinary measures: An employer can only effectively convey the message that no employee must endure a poisoned and discriminatory work environment if it takes suitable discipline, including suspension and firings, against the culprits.