An intellectually disabled St. Catharines woman who was paid just $1.25 an hour as a labourer at a packaging company for 10 years has won her discrimination case before Ontario’s Human Rights Tribunal.
The tribunal awarded Terri-Lynn Garrie $142,124 in lost wages, $19,613 in lost income for discriminatory termination and $25,000 in compensation for “injury to her dignity, feelings and self respect.”
The ruling is believed to be the first time any tribunal or court has looked at the issue of discriminatory pay for people with intellectual disabilities.
“I find that, objectively, the respondent’s discriminatory pay practice was a serious violation of the (Ontario Human Rights) Code,” tribunal vice-chair Ken Bhattacharjee wrote in his Feb. 28 ruling.
“What minimum wage legislation says is: Regardless of who you are, regardless of what you do for a job, regardless of how well you do that job, we think that this is the minimum any self-respecting human being should receive if they are working.”
Garrie was “thrilled” with the decision.
“I’m very happy (the case) is over and done with,” said the 45-year-old woman, who “loved” her job packaging wine bottles for export at Janus Joan Inc.
Janus Joan Inc. owner Stacey Szuch refused to participate in three separate tribunal proceedings since the case began in 2009.
Garrie’s mother, Marjorie Tibbs, who launched the discrimination complaint on her daughter’s behalf, said she knew about the wage disparity but assumed it was legal, since Szuch had a history of working with disabled people.
But when her daughter was fired unexpectedly in October 2009, Tibbs launched a human-rights complaint, alleging Szuch let her go because she was disabled. Tibbs also complained about the unequal pay.
Shortly after Tibbs launched the case, Szuch filed for bankruptcy and told the tribunal her business had closed.
Although she didn’t participate in any of the hearings, Szuch sent a letter to the tribunal saying Garrie was a “trainee” and not an employee. As a trainee, she was paid an honorarium amounting to about $50 a week so she could continue to receive Ontario Disability Support Program payments without triggering claw-backs, Bhattacharjee notes in his ruling.
Szuch’s letter also says Garrie’s mother and sister, who also worked for the company briefly, were aware of the honorarium, as was Garrie’s ODSP case worker.
Even if this were so, Bhattacharjee noted, you cannot contract out of the Human Rights Code.
Despite Szuch’s personal bankruptcy, Garrie’s lawyer, Mindy Noble of the Human Rights Legal Support Centre, said the centre will “make every effort to try to collect.”
But Garrie’s experience is “probably more common that we know,” said Chris Beesley, of Community Living Ontario, which serves about 12,000 adults in the province with intellectual disabilities.
People with intellectual disabilities are still very capable, he said. And for certain jobs they are statistically better workers than the rest of the population. They are more motivated, have fewer accidents, miss fewer days of work and provide better customer service, he said.
About 75 per cent of the province’s 66,000 intellectually disabled adults are unemployed, and 16,000 are on waiting lists for support, Beesley added.
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