Oliver cherry farmer who fired injured Jamaican worker on the hook $20,000

An Oliver cherry orchard that fired a Jamaican fruit picker after she fell off a ladder and couldn’t work has been ordered to pay the woman $20,000.

According to an Aug. 13 BC Human Rights Tribunal decision, Krazy Cherry Fruit Company owner Gary Bahniwal said that Jamaican workers were lazy and the women were ugly before he fired temporary foreign worker Tishanna Tashna Allison after she was injured at work.

The Tribunal said Bahniwal told Allison she was “stupid” for getting injured at work and of no value to him if she couldn’t work.

The Tribunal called his comments egregious, saying they were “direct, overt, and callous.”

The decision says Allison came to Canada to work at Krazy Cherry Fruit Company in 2022.

However, sometime that summer she fell off a ladder and injured her back. She had a couple of weeks off before attempting to return to work, but ultimately her back issues kept her out of action.

While working there, Bahniwal called her lazy, saying she didn’t want to work and only came to Canada for free health care.

“He told her that he had paid $1,000 for her ticket to Canada and she had not even worked enough to make the money back for the ticket,” the decision reads. “He accused her of coming from Jamaica just to get money and not work.”

She was scared to go back to Jamaica without money, because she felt she would be failing her family.

After several failed attempts to return to work, Bahniwal bought her a ticket back to Jamaica.

She got on the flight, but got off in Toronto, and has remained there since.

The decision says she successfully filed a WorkSafeBC claim, and she was later found to have a permanent partial disability for back pain.

The decision says Krazy Cherry Fruit Company didn’t respond to the Human Rights Tribunal claim despite being contacted on numerous occasions.

After looking at the evidence, the Tribunal had little difficulty coming to the conclusion that the orchardist discriminated against Allison.

“The discrimination… took place over a relatively short time frame of about seven weeks… however, during that period Gary directly denigrated Ms. Allison on several occasions as a person from Jamaica,” the Tribunal ruled. “He communicated to her that she was stupid for getting injured and of no value if she could not work… the discrimination culminated in the ultimate job-related consequence: the early termination of Ms. Allison’s employment contract.”

The power imbalance was significant, the Tribunal said.

“She had come to Canada to work and earn money to support her family in Jamaica. People were counting on her, including her kids, her sister’s family, and her mother. While she was here, she was reliant on Krazy Cherry and Gary for her employment and housing, in a context where her immigration status in Canada was tied to her employment status,” the Tribunal said.

The experience had traumatized her.

“Perhaps the most profound and lasting impact on Ms. Allison is her perception that she failed people that were counting on her,” the Tribunal said. “Ms. Allison did not fail. She was injured at work and discriminated against. She should not have been treated in the way that Krazy Cherry and Gary treated her.”

The Tribunal ordered the orchardist to pay $20,000 for injury to her dignity, feelings, and self-respect.