Image Credit: FACEBOOK: Buckerfield's

A former Salmon Arm Buckerfield's employee has won the first round of a B.C. Human Rights Tribunal case.

According to a March 17 B.C. Human Rights Tribunal decision, former Buckerfield's staff member Stephanie Evans argued the company fired her after she injured her right elbow and had to perform "light duties."

According to the decision, Evans had worked at the Salmon Arm Buckerfield's store for three and a half years before she got fired in 2019.

Evans argues she was discriminated against because of a physical disability which is contrary to the B.C. Human Rights Code.

Buckerfield's denies this and says Evans got fired because she wasn't a "good fit."

Evans launched the Human Rights Tribunal case against the store and her manager Toni Walton.

Buckerfield's applied to have the case thrown out, but the Tribunal dismissed the application, although it did remove the manager from the suit.

The Tribunal ruled that the case should go to a hearing, as both parties dispute a large amount of the evidence put forward.

The decision says Evans started working as a retail assistant at Buckerfield's in the spring of 2016 and after a break for maternity leave was given a raise and moved to become a warehouse assistant.

In the spring of 2019, there was a large fire at the store and afterwards Evans complained there was significantly more work but the same number of staff.

Around this time Evans started to experience significant pain in her right elbow.

Evans gave her manager a note from her doctor that said she wasn't able to perform her regular duties and she shouldn't do any heavy lifting.

The company then put her on "light retail duties."

Sometime later, Evans gave her employer another doctor's note that said that while she could go back to normal duties if her symptoms recurred she would have to go back to light duties straight away.

"Ms. Evans asserts that after returning to her full duties as a retail staff assistant she frequently had difficulty restocking dog food or soil due to her injury. She says that Ms. Walton never checked in with her about her ability to perform these heavy lifting tasks, and would yell at her if she exchanged heavy lifting tasks for light lifting tasks with her co-workers," the decision reads.

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In the decision, Evans alleges that on at least one occasion she told her boss she could not continue restocking due to her injury, but was told to carry on.

The Buckerfield's manager denies this and says she never yelled at Evans for switching tasks with her co-workers. She also says she saw Evans doing heavy lifting without issue.

Much of the evidence put forward is disputed by both parties.

The company says it held two workplace meetings with Evans to discuss her "negative workplace behaviour."

However, Evans says she has no recollection of either meeting.

"The parties’ conflicting versions of events on key issues in the complaint squarely raise credibility issues," the Tribunal ruled.

Ultimately, the Tribunal ruled the case needed to go to a hearing to be decided.

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"It is (Buckerfield's) burden on this dismissal application to persuade me that Ms. Evans has no reasonable prospect of proving a connection between her disability and any adverse impacts she experienced. I find they have not met that burden," the Tribunal ruled.

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