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A BC man lost his latest attempt to hold his employer to account for alleged discrimination, but had his case dismissed after he disclosed that he had been secretly recording conversations with colleagues and managers for the previous ten years. 

Accountant Roman Shalagin tried to use those recordings to establish his claim that he was was fired from a Kootenay pulp mill in 2020 without cause.

Originally from Russia, he claimed his supervisors at the Mercer Celgar Limited Partnership mill discriminated against him for his heritage and that he was skipped over for bonuses his colleagues received. The BC Court of Appeal dismissed his claim, according to a recent decision.

Unknown to his coworkers, Shalagin started recording conversations soon after he was hired, which began during training sessions. He said he first started recording them as a way to improve his English.

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He soon became "less sensitive" to how his coworkers might feel about the discrete recordings and, by 2012, was routinely recording conversations with management, according to the decision.

Shalagin and his direct supervisor had a poor relationship, and Shalagin believed he was being discriminated against for his ethnic background.

He recorded a conversation in which his supervisor asked him not to wear a Team Russia cap after the team won a hockey championship, told Shalagin not to use Russian idioms because others don't understand them, and asked Shalagin to put information in writing because he couldn't understand his accent.

He found his boss to be "intimidating," describing a time when the supervisor reminded him "who he worked for," and wanted to ensure he had evidence of that behaviour, according to the decision.

"I felt that maybe something like that would happen again and I would be able to do something about it and file a complaint or do something," Shalagin testified.

Shalagin didn't lodge a formal complaint against his supervisor and only complained to management after that supervisor was fired. Despite the fact his own boss was gone, Shalagin continued to record conversations with other managers.

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He looked over documents that recorded bonuses for his coworkers, learned about their raises, going on to challenge management over why he didn't get the same treatment.

Dissatisfied with the explanation from his new boss that he had areas to improve on before getting a bonus, he threatened to take his employer to court.

He sent an email to two managers, ending it by saying he was “open to resolve this disagreement in timely manner and internally, without litigation," according to the decision.

Managers felt they couldn't work with him and he was fired in March 2020.

He never showed anyone else the recordings, and instead spared them until taking his employer to court. The BC Supreme Court previously ruled that although his recordings weren't illegal, they were unethical.

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"After (his supervisor’s) departure, it appears Shalagin became more and more concerned about his own remuneration and bonuses and in improving his own reputation by repeatedly pointing out the errors of others," the appeal court's decision reads.

The recordings ranged in topics beyond his own discrimination concerns, including a time he wrongly claimed a coworker was underpaid during her maternity leave. In another conversation he discussed allegations that an ex-coworker was fired before they were able to submit a harassment complaint. He also inadvertently recorded conversations between other people when he forgot to turn off his phone, according to the decision. 

"His last recorded conversation... suggests that Shalagin had come to adopt an unrealistic view of his own abilities and an inflexible insistence that his own points of view should prevail."

After taking the Supreme Court's dismissal to the Court of Appeal, it was dismissed again on Oct. 6.

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