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A BC company has been ordered to pay $20,000 to a former employee it fired after she told them she was pregnant.

According to a May 3 BC Human Rights Tribunal decision, employee Seema Lall had been working for Apidel Technologies doing telesales from home for more than a year when she discovered she was pregnant with her second child.

She told the company she was pregnant and a few weeks afterwards, the company fired her over a Skype call.

The company claimed it was because of her poor work performance combined with the fact Lall, who was a recent immigrant to Canada from Guyana, hadn't secured a visa so she could travel to the US for work.

However, the Tribunal didn't buy it.

"I find that the impact of the discrimination on Ms. Lall was serious," the Tribunal ruled. "During a period when she was especially vulnerable and reliant on her employment for stability in her life, she was fired because of her pregnancy."

In the decision, Apidel Technologies and Amita Patel, who is named in the suit, says Lall was fired because she didn't bring in enough sales.

However, the Tribunal said the company had provided no evidence of this.

"If Ms. Lall’s sales volume was inadequate as alleged, it would be reasonable to expect there would be some documentary material showing sales figures or new accounts for the company," the Tribunal ruled. "They gave no evidence of any corrective or disciplinary action taken."

The company also says Lall was fired because it had been asking her for a year to apply for a US visa but she'd only just done so a couple of weeks before she was fired.

However, the Tribunal ruled the company submitted no documentary evidence that the delay in getting the visa was a serious concern for the company.

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"The (company) say the delay was 'too much to overcome' but did not explain why they waited for nearly a year but decided to terminate Ms. Lall after she had actually applied for the visa," the Tribunal ruled.

"Considering all the circumstances of the case, I find the explanation offered by (Apidel Technologies and Patel) do not show there were only non-discriminatory reasons for terminating Ms. Lall’s employment. While I accept that other factors may have influenced the decision, I find that Ms. Lall’s pregnancy was an operative factor in her termination," the Tribunal ruled.

Ultimately, the Tribunal ordered the company to pay $12,720.00 in lost wages and $7,500 for compensation for injury to her dignity, feelings, and self-respect.

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"Ms. Lall gave concise and sincere evidence regarding the upheaval to her life. It is not necessary for Ms. Lall to speak at length to understand the effect of unexpectedly having your employment terminated when you are pregnant and about to be responsible for a new life, the Tribunal said.

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