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A Kelowna engineer has won the first round of a B.C. Human Rights Tribunal case alleging that her employer discriminated against her for taking maternity leave after having a baby.

According to a B.C. Human Rights Tribunal decision, Meagan Harvey worked for ROV Consulting for nine years before the relationship fell apart and she was dismissed several months after returning to work following the birth of her second child.

Harvey claims ROV Consulting's treatment of her was a direct result of her taking maternity leave and the company discriminated against her because of her sex and family status.

ROV Consulting denies the allegations saying they are based on "speculation and conjecture" and applied to dismiss Harvey's complaint.

However, following a lengthy analysis of the evidence submitted by both sides, the Tribunal ruled the dispute could go to a hearing.

The ruling doesn't mean that Havey has proved she was discriminated against, only that there is enough evidence that the case should go to a hearing.

According to the decision, Harvey started working at ROV Consulting in 2010 as a co-op student. By 2019 she was a registered engineer running projects and making $82,000 a year.

While Harvey was on leave, the company hired a third party to investigate an allegation that she'd bullied another employee.

The company says there is no connection between the decision to investigate and Harvey’s sex or family status, and that the bullying allegations were found be have been unsubstantiated.

The issues largely started after she returned to work after taking six months of maternity leave in 2019.

The decision says Harvey continued to work on some projects while on maternity leave and ROV Consulting topped up her employment insurance earnings.

Not long after returning to work the company held a meeting where Harvey alleges she was made to apologize to staff for taking maternity leave by the company's senior partner Richard Visscher.

She also alleges another partner, Mahdi Yazdinezhad, required her to thank the staff who covered "her" work while she was away, and the chief operating officer Dr. Bahar Reza told her she was "not entitled" to take time off.

In its response, the company denies asking Harvey to apologize for taking the leave.

In the months following the meeting Harvey alleges the company verbally abused her calling her "unintelligent" and an "idiot."

Again the company denies the allegations of verbal abuse. The company goes on to say, even if the allegation is true, there is no link between the alleged insults and Harvey’s pregnancy and maternity leave.

The decision says the company filed dozens of pages of text messages that support its position.

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According to the decision, in March 2019 the company sent an email to all staff saying they would be fined if their work was not done in a certain way.

Harvey responded saying they could not do this.

The company argued the email was sent to all staff and they did not single Harvey out. Regardless, the company says there was no link between the email and Harvey’s sex or family status.

Shortly afterwards the company reduced her pay from $40 an hour to $38 an hour.

Harvey then sent management an email.

"I refuse the new wage that you have imposed without my consent," the email read. "(I) will accept the ongoing treatment and wage reduction as constructive dismissal."

The company emailed back saying it accepted her resignation.

Several months later ROV Consulting put in a formal complaint against Harvey to the regulatory board. The board later dismissed the claim.

ROV Consulting also alleges that Harvey was in the midst of setting up her own company just before she left.

Harvey denies the claim.

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Harvey claims the company put "unspoken pressure" on her to put the company over her family so as not to inconvenience ROV Consulting.

"Ms. Harvey describes an overall culture that discouraged employees from taking time off work to care for new children or any other family or life concerns. She says this made her feel guilty for having children and considering more children," the decision reads.

The firm describes the allegation as a "thinly veiled" attempt to support her complaints with unsupported evidence.

Much of the lengthy decision is given to decide which pieces of evidence can be used to go forward with the Human Rights complaint.

"Harvey alleges that her second pregnancy and resulting leave triggered a pattern of negative treatment in the workplace that she had not previously experienced," the Tribunal said. "ROV (Consulting) disagrees and says the allegations of discrimination defy reason because they supported Ms. Harvey’s leaves. Mr. Yazdinezhad and Dr. Reza say they have a young child themselves, were good friends with Ms. Harvey and her husband, and supported her in various ways."

The Tribunal ruled that Harvey had provided little evidence to support that some of the issues at hand amounted to discrimination based on sex or family status.

However, the Tribunal ruled there could be a connection between Harvey’s sex and family status and the apology she was alleged to have been told to make.

"ROV denies this allegation and says that, even if proven, it is not so egregious as to attract the protection of the (Human Rights) Code. I disagree, particularly when viewed in the context of the allegation that this was one example in a pattern of negative treatment," the Tribunal ruled.

The case will now be allowed to go to a hearing if the two parties don't settle the dispute through mediation.

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