Fired worker awarded $30K after restaurant co-worker used wrong pronouns

[Floyd R. Turbo]

A non-binary transgender restaurant employee in Gibsons who was fired after complaining to the owners about being called “she” and “sweetheart” by the bar manager has been awarded $30,000 by the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal, which upheld a discrimination complaint.

The decision was the first involving a complaint by a non-binary transgender employee who uses gender-neutral (they/them) pronouns.

The “hefty” award is a “signal to employers,” said the complainant’s lawyer, Adrienne Smith. “It should be a signal that employers need to be respectful. Correct pronouns for individuals are not optional. Employers are not free to address people by the pronouns they choose to.”

Smith added, however, that “the employee didn’t get $30,000 because they were called by the wrong pronouns. They got the $30,000 because they were fired for being transgender.”

https://vancouversun.com/news/fired-worker-awarded-30k-after-restaurant-co-worker-used-wrong-pronouns

[hlthe2b]

1. Misleading headline: They got $30k because they were fired for being transgender, not over pronouns

“the employee didn’t get $30,000 because they were called by the wrong pronouns. They got the $30,000 because they were fired for being transgender.”

[3Hotdogs]

2. thanks for the correction.

The headline could have been the start of a Vonnegut short story.

[mucifer]

3. I am proud to say I work for a hospice and we recently have new intake forms that ask about

pronouns. So in our computer system in our laptops we use in the patient's homes we can see what pronouns to use.

I doubt staff are going to ask people in their 70s about the pronouns for their parents, patients in their 90s. But, it's a start.