Judge awards 45-year Lillooet pharmacy employee $150K for ‘callous and reprehensible’ firing

For more than 40 years, Lillooet Pharmacy was a community hub, and the face of that hub was its manager, Nobuye Mayede, who had worked at the pharmacy since she started there as a clerk in 1979.

Mayede took personal care of the customers in her thoughtful manner, which over the years had created many loyal shoppers. Until she was 77, she worked eight hours a day, six days a week running the store. She was the first one in and the last one out and took pride in her work.

Then, in 2017, Ahmed Magdy Aboelella, who goes by Mr. Magdy, bought Lillooet I.D.A. Pharmacy and everything changed.

He berated her in front of staff and customers, accused her of stealing, told her she could only work under supervision, and took her keys away. Finally, he forced her to write a resignation letter she had no intention of writing.

She was crying as she wrote the letter, and was so upset she forgot how to spell.

Magdy yelled at her and told her to shush so the other employees wouldn’t hear.

As she was about to walk out the door for the final time, Magdy stopped her. He told her to deliver some medicine on the way home. She did so without a complaint.

He wrote “Mandatory retirement” on her Record of Employment so she couldn’t claim Employment Insurance.

Instead, Mayede sued for wrongful dismissal.

“It would be an understatement to say Mrs. Mayede loved her job. It was part of her identity and her role in the small-town community where everyone knew each other,” Justice Miriam Maisonville said in a Dec. 19 decision. “Mayede was a devoted, faithful, and obedient employee to Lillooet Pharmacy.”

The Justice described Magdy’s treatment of her as “callous and reprehensible.”

The decision said Mayede was born in a Japanese-Canadian internment camp near Lillooet, after her family were forcibly removed from the Lower Mainland during the Second World War. 

After being released from the camp in 1947, her family settled in Lillooet, having had all their property confiscated in Vancouver.

She worked at Woodward’s Department Store after graduating and returned to Lillooet to live with her husband, who died in 2016.

She got a job as a clerk and cashier at the Lillooet Pharmacy in 1979.

She was promoted to front store manager and after the original owner, Hal Stathers, sold the business to his daughter, Mayede remained.

She was there more than eight hours a day, six days a week, and the number of hours she put in meant her salary didn’t meet minimum wage.

“In addition to her retail and supervisory duties, when it rained heavily, she would attend the store to move inventory to dry areas to ensure leaks in the ceiling did not drip on them. When it snowed, she would shovel the walkway and the parking lot,” the decision reads. “Mrs. Mayede would go to the store at night to deal with the RCMP when the alarm would go off. She would arrive early each morning by at least 8 a.m.to meet the delivery trucks. She would set up the window displays seasonally. She would clean the store. She would learn new systems, such as when the tills went electronic and scanning was required.”

Then in 2017, Magdy bought the business.

He kept Mayede on as the front store manager, paying her $40,000 a year.

But things started to change. Her duties changed, some of her responsibilities were removed and staffing at the store was pared down but she continued to work after hours handling emergencies, like flooding and freezing pipes and shoveling snow.

She was never paid for any of the after-hours work.

Towards the end of 2023, Mayede was the only front-store employee, and in October that year, the store was robbed.

“The robber opened his coat to show Mrs. Mayede that he had a crowbar,” the Justice said.

Over time a series of small incidents took place that caused conflict between Mayede and her new boss.

“From time to time, Mr. Magdy would confront her on something he thought was wrong that she had done; he would yell, scream, stomp his feet, and smack his hands together. She would be shocked and humiliated as he would do this not only in front of other staff but customers in the store as well,” the Justice said.

He accused her of gossiping about him, although she was the justice found she was very polite about everyone.

Several small incidents occurred, then on one occasion, an elderly customer was being sold a child’s watch, but Mayede knew the hands were too small for the customer to see. She arranged for the senior to come back the next day and she would loan the longstanding customer her husband’s watch until they got more inventory in.

“She recalled that Mr. Magdy became agitated in the discussion about the watch, raising his voice, punctuating his words with the violent gestures, including smacking his hands. She was shocked and humiliated at being publicly spoken to in that way,” the Justice said. 

He accused her of “stealing” customers.

He told Mayede her interactions with customers had to be supervised by another store employee – one that Mayede had trained.

The decision said Mayede was overwhelmed with emotion and began to cry in court while she gave her testimony.

“Mrs. Mayede felt degraded and humiliated by the removal of her keys. She had to wait for another employee to come let her in and then lock up after her,” the Justice said. “This was humiliating for her as she had been a key holder for nearly 40 years.

“Furthermore, it was degrading and humiliating for Mrs. Mayede, whom locals would seek out in the store, to have to track down another employee to supervise her whenever she spoke to a customer or even to operate the till for her if someone wished to make a purchase.”

The events all accumulated until Magdy forced her to write the letter of resignation.

In court, she testified that she had no intention to retire or quit, and she needed the income.

Losing her job after so many years under the circumstances took its toll on her.

She had symptoms of depression and became withdrawn and did not leave her home. She had trouble sleeping and lost her appetite.

“Mrs. Mayede’s work at Lillooet Pharmacy had been her source of social interaction for many years… it was a loss of her connection to her place in the community,” the Justice said.

While Mayede travelled to Vancouver to testify in court, Magdy didn’t bother to turn up.

Justice Maisonville ruled that Mayede did not resign and was instead dismissed, saying that she was treated unfairly and humiliated in a public way.

The Justice ordered Magdy to pay two years’ salary totalling $90,000, plus another $30,000 in aggravated damages and $30,000 in punitive damages, saying his treatment of Mayede was “malicious and outrageous.”

Ultimately, Magdy was forced to pay $150,056, plus interest and court fees.