School’s bonuses for parents only draws complaint

If a company pays an annual bonus available only to employees with children, does that count as discrimination?

That is a question being considered by the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal after a former teacher at a private North Vancouver high school complained he lost out on up to $4,800 each year because he is childless. He believes the extra cash for parents amounts to discrimination on the basis of family status, which is protected under the B.C. Human Rights Code.

Ben Nelson taught at Bodwell High School, where employee parents receive $1,200 each year for every child under the age of 17.

The program is called the Child Benefit Scheme, and officials at the boarding school say it is meant to help employees “fully participate in the life of the child,” according to tribunal documents.

The school tried to have Nelson’s complaint dismissed, claiming the family status provision of the code was meant to protect people with certain family relationships, not people without those relationships. In this case, that means families with children, not those without.

“They say family status has never been advanced by a complainant who has no children in order to obtain a benefit, received by a person with children, whose objective is to alleviate the financial burdens of child rearing,” tribunal chairman Bernd Walter wrote in a decision Tuesday.

But Walter rejected Bodwell’s application to have the complaint dismissed, opting instead to let the case move forward to a hearing.

In his decision on the matter, Walter acknowledged that the precise definition of family status is “less than clear” in the code and previous cases have focused on people who were discriminated against because they are parents.

“They have attempted to address barriers which could keep parents with children from the workplace. There are also cases addressing discrimination against persons with children in tenancy. Family status has also been found to encompass dismissal of an employee because of the identity of their spouse and child,” Walter wrote.

He went on to say that while the code does protect parents from discrimination, that doesn’t necessarily mean childless people aren’t protected.

“Just as marital status protects persons in a spousal relationship, it also protects persons who are not. For instance, a requirement that only married people may apply for a job would, on its face, differentiate based on marital status,” Walter wrote.

Bodwell officials also pointed out there are several government programs in Canada that give subsidies exclusively to people with children — such as the Canada child tax benefit. If Nelson were to win his case, it might mean those government programs are discriminatory, too.

But Walter rejected that reasoning as well, saying he didn’t accept that ruling in Nelson’s favour would mean the automatic cancellation of those government programs.

“The issue of whether any government program, subsidy or tax benefit adversely affects a person based on family status and, if so, whether it is justified, must be determined in the particular factual circumstances in which it arises,” Walter wrote.

Nelson was fired from his job at Bodwell in November 2014, and alleges it was in retaliation for his complaints about the Child Benefit Scheme.

The school says he was let go because of issues with his performance.