Spa ordered to pay for religion-based demotion

Business says it will appeal tribunal ruling

A West Edmonton Mall spa tried to demote a former general manager because she wasn’t Muslim, the Human Rights Tribunal of Alberta has ruled.

Spasation Salon and Day Spa, an Edmonton-based chain of eight shops, has been ordered to pay the woman what could amount to around $100,000 in lost wages and damages.

The human rights ruling by Sharon Lindgren-Hewlett was made Aug. 6 after former employee Aleksandra Andric filed the complaint more than five years ago following a workplace assault.

On March 8, 2010, Andric was speaking on the telephone when co-worker Johanna Amazu grabbed Andric by the hair and began punching her face, the decision said.

Amazu’s husband also was there but was “held back” from attacking, the document said.

“This is not over, you don’t mess with Allah,” he said leaving the salon, according to the decision.

Police were called and the Amazus were banned from the mall, the document said. No charges were laid.

The decision does not state what motivated the assault.

Four days after the assault, spa CEO Hasoon Rahal met with Andric.

“You don’t look too bad,” Rahal said to Andric in the meeting, according to the decision.

Andric was told she would be moved to another location and have her salary “revised,” despite her request to stay at the West Edmonton Mall location, the decision said.

In the meeting Rahal also noted he shared a religious community with the Amazu family, the decision said.

“The shared religious beliefs with the Amazus were a factor in the respondent’s decision to transfer the non-Muslim complainant,” the decision said.

Andric wanted to stay because other employees would recognize Amazu if she tried to enter the shop. Andric also could access mall security, friends or co-workers to escort her to her car, if need be, the decision found.

Instead that move was “motivated, at least in part, by the fact that Ms. Andric was not a Muslim and did not share the common religious beliefs of the respondents,” the decision said. The unspecified job change after 10 successful years amounted to “adverse impacts,” it said.

Spasation argued it moved Andric for business reasons, including that she may have lost the respect of her colleagues for being attacked and “the fact that it happened in the business,” the decision said. That “borders on nonsensical,” it said.

Amazu was fired, but rehired a year later at another location owned by Rahal because he “felt pity for her when she approached him,” Rahal testified, according to the decision.

Rahal also had “numerous telephone conversations” with Amazu and her husband following the assault, the decision said. That constituted preferential treatment based on religion, the tribunal ruled.

Spasation will appeal the tribunal’s decision to the Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench, it said in a statement Monday.

“As an organization with a proud history of ethnic and religious diversity and inclusiveness for employees and clients alike, we remain shocked and dismayed by the allegations contained in the complaint, and we are committed to proving them false,” wrote Spasation operations director Danny Assaf.

Andric decl ined to comment.

The tribunal ordered Spasation to pay two years of lost wages for the time Andric was healing, searching for a job and establishing herself in a new business market, the retail sector.

That amounts to $2,500 per month, plus one per cent of sales under $100,000 and 1.5 per cent of sales over $100,000. During the time Andric was employed at her new job, which she’s held for more than four years, Spasation must top up her wage to its previous level.

The tribunal also ordered the spa pay $15,000 in general damages for distress, injury and loss of dignity. rward@edmontonjournal.com twitter.com/wardrachel