Lawyers work to establish cases in human rights hearing of Muslim man versus a local company
A key figure in the Alberta Human Rights Commission’s public hearing for the case of Shaharyar Ahmad versus CF Chemicals Ltd. took to the witness stand Thursday at the Clarion Hotel.
Chris Ernst, manager of Workforce Development at CF Chemicals in Medicine Hat, spent the morning being examined by CF attorney Tom Valentine, as Valentine tried to establish the complainant — former senior processing engineer Shaharyar Ahmad — was passed over for promotions, and subsequently terminated, because of his workplace behaviour rather than due to systemic, corporate, racial and religious discrimination, as Ahmad has alleged.
According to yearly performance reports and HR notations submitted by the company to the tribunal, Ahmad was “aggressive” and “confrontational” on many occasions toward supervisors and other members of the CF operations staff. According to Ernst, Ahmad, toward the end of his nearly six-year tenure with the company especially, became increasingly unco-operative and belligerent in his personal interactions and email communications with his supervisors.
In response to Valentine’s questioning, Ernst admitted Ahmad had not been terminated due to his engineering competency, or “for cause” as he put it, but rather because of his attitude.
In the afternoon it was Ahmad’s turn to cross examine Ernst. Ahmad tabled internal performance reports which praised him for solving some longstanding issues with the chemical processes at the plant, and pointed out all his yearly performance evaluations had given him, on the whole, acceptable marks for his professional competence. Ernst again conceded Ahmad’s professional qualifications to be a senior processing engineer with CF.
Ahmad then asked why, when it came time to consider succession planning for higher supervisory engineering positions, the company had appointed its two causcasian engineers to these positions without internal competition, bypassing both Ahmad and another experienced Muslim engineer on staff?
Ernst said the positions had been awarded without internal competition because the company felt the individuals chosen had a greater performance competency in line with what those positions required.
Under Ahmad’s questioning, Ernst admitted in his 16 years in Human Resources with CF Chemicals Ltd. in Medicine Hat, he had never seen an employee who was a visible minority promoted internally to a senior supervisory position where he or she would be actively overseeing “people,” as he put it. He was also personally aware of only one external hire of a visible minority to such a position in that time period.
Adjudicator William McFetridge indicated more days would have to be added to the public hearing as not all witnesses in the case had been examined. The hearing will resume at a later date.