The Alberta Court of Appeal has confirmed that family status discrimination claims are assessed using the same basic prima facie discrimination framework as other protected grounds. EPCOR Utilities Inc. sought permission to appeal after the Alberta Labour Relations Board left standing an arbitration award that allowed two family status grievances brought by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 1007. The proposed appeal focused on the threshold employees must meet before an employer has to justify a workplace rule or decision that adversely affects family status. EPCOR argued that family status should require something more than the ordinary discrimination test. Its position was that an employee should have to show a sufficiently serious or material interference with a family obligation before establishing prima facie discrimination. The Court of Appeal rejected that approach. It relied on Alberta authority confirming that the ordinary three part test applies. An employee must show a protected characteristic, an adverse impact and a connection between the protected characteristic and that adverse impact. The Court said family status does not carry a separate materiality requirement.
This is a preview. Full access remains subject to the reading allowance or membership.