Lawyer warns employers to hold off on riot firings
Posted June 22, 2011 7:52 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – If you run a downtown Vancouver business and one of your staff was caught taking part in Wednesday’s riot, you may want to hold off on firing them.
Lawyer Walter Rilkoff says it can depend on what the worker does at their job and what they were caught doing during the smashup.
“The majority of people that participated appear to be otherwise law-abiding, even in many respects, admirable people. And this was something that was out of character, spur of the moment.”
Rilkoff says employers could run afoul of the B.C. Human Rights Code if they fire or attempt to fire certain workers convicted of a crime during the riot. Rilkoff says the employee could argue their behaviour does not impact the image of the business in any way, depending on their job.
