Image Credit: https://www.bestwestern.com/

A B.C. Best Western hotel has failed in its attempt to have a Human Rights Tribunal case thrown out after it fired a staff member days after she told them she was pregnant.

According to a Feb. 10 B.C. Human Rights Tribunal decision, Best Western Plus Chemainus Inn argued it fired Yulia Rabinovich due to her poor performance within her three-month probation period.

However, Rabinovich argued her shifts were reduced and she was then fired in the days after she told her manager she was pregnant.

The hotel argued she had no chance of winning and the case should be dismissed.

Rabinovich began working at the Best Western Plus Chemainus Inn in December 2019 and told her employer she was pregnant Jan. 20, 2020. Eleven days later she was fired.

Best Western argued she was let go because she "wasn’t meeting the needs of the company" and her "performance wasn’t up to the standards of the company."

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Best Western argued it had warned her about this prior to her getting fired.

Rabinovich said she was never told this.

The decision said Rabinovich worked between two and five days per week but after she told the manager she was pregnant she was only given one shift. She complained and was given an extra shift.

The hotel argued the reduction in shifts had nothing to do with the pregnancy and is based on how busy the hotel was.

However, the Tribunal wasn't persuaded by the evidence.

The Tribunal pointed out the hotel submitted no evidence to prove this and questioned how if this was the case it could give Rabinovich another shift.

The hotel said it fired Rabinovich in part because she failed to enter guest information directly into its computer system and instead wrote notes on paper, which posed risks to the privacy of its guests. The hotel submitted one such note in evidence.

However, Rabinovich said the note submitted as evidence was from a mock training exercise and not private guest information.

The hotel responded saying whether it was a mock exercise or not was "irrelevant."

Rabinovich denied that Best Western ever told her that her performance wasn't up to par and that contrary to this she got positive feedback from coworkers and hotel guests.

The hotel admits she had a "pleasant disposition" but still says her performance was poor.

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However, Best Western failed to produce evidence to back this up.

"(The Best Western) has provided a great deal of evidence by affidavit, what is lacking in the material before me is any documentation regarding any alleged performance concerns dated before Ms. Rabinovich was terminated," The Tribunal ruled. "I am unable to place a significant amount of weight on the (hotel's) affidavit evidence in the absence of any documentary evidence pre-dating the termination."

The Tribunal goes on to say that it may be "coincidental" the Best Western fired Rabinovich days after she told them she was pregnant but the hotel hasn't provided enough evidence to and the case should go to a hearing.

Ultimately, the case will now go to a Human Right Tribunal hearing, unless the two parties settle it in mediation.

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