Firing leads to rights complaint
Sexually harassed at work, woman alleges
Aformer housekeeper at a Barrhaven retirement home has filed a complaint with the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario, alleging she was fired for refusing to work until her employer investigated a sexual harassment complaint she made against a co-worker.
What makes Natalia Osorio’s dismissal even more curious is that she was given a signed apology from the coworker by Prince of Wales Manor management, about four weeks after she and her husband went to general manager Melanie Lefebvre to complain about the harassment. Though she says some of her other co-workers knew about the incidents, she never mentioned them to Lefebvre until Aug. 16.
Osorio says Lefebvre told her she would not be able to address the matter at 4 p.m. on a Friday, with the weekend pending. Osorio says she then told Lefebvre that she would not return to work until “something is done about it” because she felt “unsafe.” Osorio says that prompted the general manager to warn her that she would have to hire someone else for her job if she was not back for her Monday shift. Osorio did not report. Osorio says Lefebvre left a message with her husband on the Tuesday — Aug. 20 — but she did not call back because she was still dismayed by the treatment she received the previous Friday. As far as she was concerned, she was fired. She found out a few days later from a coworker that the man who allegedly harassed her was still working there.
Osorio says the apology proves she was sexually harassed by the man — a kitchen worker — who showed “a high level of interest” in her soon after she was hired last May.
Osorio says the worker more or less started things off by asking if she was married and had children. She also says he tried to give her his phone number and asked for hers. Osorio recalls the man telling her he had chocolates to give her.
She says she quickly became uncomfortable and would ignore him or walk away when he said something to her. But he didn’t get the message.
He became more aggressive, nestling up against her on one occasion and, on another, grabbing her hand. She also caught him leering at her several times. Osorio says he also followed her once into the kitchen’s walk-in refrigerator, where he told he wanted to give her a present. “This is for your protection because you’re so beautiful,” she recalls him saying. He then tried to give her what looked like a plastic eye on a key chain. Osorio says the final straw came on Aug. 16 when a co-worker told her the man had said she “would be a good woman to f--.” Osorio says she told her husband, who insisted they go see Lefebvre.
Reached Friday, Lefebvre would only say “our policy is to not make any comments in regards to human relations.” A call to management at Regal Lifestyle Communities, which operates Prince of Wales Manor on Barnstone Drive, as well as other facilities in Ontario, Saskatchewan and Newfoundland and Labrador, was not returned.
The man whom Osorio alleges sexually harassed her says he never did, and emphatically denies making any comment about the woman to co-workers. He wrote the apology, at the urging of his employer, he says, to be “professional.” He says he is married with children and had absolutely no interest in Osorio. But he admits he told Osorio that she was “beautiful” in Spanish, at the urging of another co-worker. He says he can’t understand why that would be considered harassment, when all he was doing was complimenting her.
The apology, dated Sept. 11, states: “I understand that my co-worker, Natalie (sic), has misunderstood me. I am writing this letter to express my sincerest apologies for my disregard and that I am so very sorry for any hurt that I have caused her.
“I would really like it if everyone understood that I did not mean for Natalie (sic), or in fact, anyone, to feel distressed at all. It was not my intention to cause any inconvenience or damage.”
Osorio, hired in late May, was less than two weeks from completing the probationary period for her job when she and her husband met with Lefebvre. But it doesn’t appear Osorio was a problem employee who likely would have failed probation. Former co-workers describe her as a diligent and cheery worker who would go that extra step to make seniors on her floor as comfortable as possible. She is missed, they say.
One co-worker says Osorio was shocked by the severe odour in a room where a man with dementia lived, and went to extraordinary measures to clean the room and get rid of the smell. The worker says Lefebvre was also very impressed by Osorio’s work ethic and the kindness she showed residents.
Osorio, 31, was born and raised in Colombia, and married her Canadian husband there about four years ago. The couple moved to Ottawa two years ago, with Osorio’s twin children, now 14.
The housekeeping job was Osorio’s third since moving to Ottawa. Osorio says losing her job has caused so much stress that she is suffering from severe intestinal problems. She says she has made numerous visits to medical clinics and emergency rooms, including two the same day this week. Osorio was sending some of her earnings to Colombia to help support her mother. She says she took pride in her work and formed warm relationships with the residents. Osorio says she recalls Lefebvre telling her,: “Natalia, you’re amazing.”
Her sister-in-law, Leslie DeFazio, has been trying to get Osorio her job back. Using a pseudonym because of her family ties to Osorio, she spoke to Lefebvre, whom she found evasive, and then to Eric Ladniak, Regal Lifestyles’ human-resources director. Judging from some of his answers, DeFazio says it appeared he only learned of Osorio’s firing between the time she spoke to Lefebvre and then Ladniak on Sept. 3.
Ladniak, she says, told her that Lefebvre had a letter of apology from the kitchen worker. She says she demanded that Osorio be given a job at another Regal property in Ottawa. DeFazio also demanded that she be paid for her lost wages since midAugust.
Ladniak refused, but said he would look further into the matter. Several days later, Ladniak reiterated that the case was closed as Osorio had failed to report to work. When DeFazio told him that they would then be filing a complaint with the Human Rights Tribunal, DeFazio says Ladniak told her, “Good luck — see you there.”
DeFazio says she also went to the manor on Sept. 11 to ask for the apology letter. But it didn’t seem to exist. She says Lefebvre told her it would be ready the next day. It was. After being handed the letter, DeFazio says Lefebvre told her,: “Say hi to Natalia from us.”