Harassed server awarded $52K
‘Humiliated’ by boss’s groping, given less work
•Aserverwho was harassed after refusing sexual advances from the owner of a Montreal restaurant has been awarded $52,000 by a Quebec labour relations tribunal.
In a decision this month, the tribunal found Anissa Berrad had been humiliated and suffered psychological harassment.
When she was first hired by Nick Triandos, the owner of Blanche Neige (Snow White) restaurant in January 2013, she said that he seemed to be a good boss.
But she soon noticed that he kissed his servers on the cheeks and neck and groped them. Berrad testified that he did the same to her, and when she confronted him about his behaviour, he told her it was normal.
A few months after she began work, Triandos touched her breast while driving her to the restaurant, and she told him to stop, the ruling says. He began screaming and insulting her, she told the tribunal.
The decision says Berrad felt “humiliated, terrorized and fearful” about going to work every morning, but she kept the job because she had to pay rent and send money to her ill mother in Morocco.
According to her testimony, Triandos changed her working conditions and gave her a section of the restaurant that was less busy.
She wasn’t making any money from tips, and she testified that Triandos told her that her mother would “starve of hunger.”
On Jan. 23, 2015, Triandos told her not to show up for work the following day.
The $52,000 award includes $30,000 for moral and exemplary damages and $19,500 for lost wages.