Image Credit: FACEBOOK: Bouchons Bistro

A Kelowna fine dining restaurant has been ordered to pay a former server $25,000 after she was repeatedly sexually harassed by a staff member.

The B.C. Human Rights Tribunal ordered Bouchons Bistro to pay former server Valencia Curken $25,000 and dismissed the restaurant's argument that it wasn't responsible because it didn't know about the harassment.

According to a Jan. 12, B.C. Human Rights Tribunal decision, Curken worked at the high-end French restaurant from 2017 until she was fired in 2019.

She then launched a Human Rights complaint against the former employee who sexually harassed her and the restaurant, arguing the sexual harassment resulted in her losing her job.

Curken later came to a settlement with the unnamed employee who'd harassed her and he was dropped from the case.

She continued to argue that Bouchons Bistro was also responsible for allowing the harassment to happen.

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The decision said Curken had been a server for decades and worked at the restaurant for several years under the old owner.

In 2017, she returned and during the time she worked there, the employee, who later became her boss, continually made sexual comments and propositioned her for sex.

He also made sexual gestures, jokes, and innuendos and sent her sexually graphic and explicit text messages, and pornographic videos.

The employee had touched Curken and once exposed his genitals to her.

The restaurant's owners Stephane and Beatrice Facon agreed that the employee's behaviour was "offensive and unacceptable" but argued as Curken didn't report it to them they aren't responsible.

The bistro said it would have fired the employee had it known about the sexual harassment, but he quit before the allegations came out.

However, the Tribunal is highly critical of the steps Stephane took after he learned of the sexual harassment.

Instead of calling Curken to see how she was doing and offering her support, he instead asked staff members and others about Curken's sexual history.

The Tribunal ruled the Bouchons Bistro owner gave "no reasonable explanation" of why he did this.

"These kinds of questions in a sexual harassment investigation perpetuate harmful gender myths and victim blaming," the Tribunal ruled.

The Tribunal criticized the owners for not contacting Curken after it found out that she had been sexually harassed by one of its employees.

"The only explanation he had was that they were facing litigation. (Bouchons Bistro) also says this is the reason the Facons did not check in with Ms. Curken to see how she was doing or offer her any support," the decision read. "Again, however, the difficulty is the impact on Ms. Curken. Ms. Curken experienced stress, anxiety, and humiliation knowing that Mr. Facon questioned others about her personal life with others."

While Curken argued her dismissal was a result of the sexual harassment, the restaurant said she was fired because she didn't "follow the rules" especially surrounding the restaurant's tip procedures that required her to supply her own float.

However, Curken also took her former employer to the Employment Standards Tribunal which ruled the restaurant's tip procedures concerning the float were illegal.

The decision said the Employment Standards Tribunal ruled that Curken was fired in retaliation for her reporting the bistro to them. Curken was awarded compensation but the decision didn't say how much.

The Human Rights Tribunal dismissed Curken's claim that sexual harassment was a factor in her firing, but ruled in her favour that Bouchons Bistro was liable for the sexual harassment happening in the first place.

The Tribunal goes on to criticize the restaurant's defence that it wasn't responsible because it didn't know.

"It is extremely unfortunate that the only defence advanced in (Bouchons Bistro's) final submission was in direct conflict with well-established legal principles of employer liability," the Tribunal ruled.

Ultimately, the Tribunal ordered the restaurant to pay Curken $25,000.

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