[lg policy] Canada: Employees lose Via Rail language policy challenge

[Harold Schiffman]

Employees lose Via Rail language policy challenge

James Kosowan/Canwest News Service


 Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2009

OTTAWA -- Five Via Rail employees have lost a court battle claiming
they should not have to speak French to work on routes in Western
Canada because there are already enough bilingual employees to pick up
the slack. Federal Court Justice Luc Martineau dismissed the veteran
employees’ quest for financial compensation for the wages they say
they lost because they were denied the most senior service jobs. The
unilingual employees, who have all worked at Via for 24 years or more,
are based in Winnipeg and Vancouver.

The workers unsuccessfully challenged Via’s requirement for
bilingualism for onboard service staff on the Western Transcontinental
route between Toronto and Vancouver, which mainly serves Canadian and
foreign tourists. “Via is an important instrument of government policy
in transportation, employment and promotion of linguistic duality and
bilingualism in Canada,” wrote Justice Martineau. A francophone
travelling in Western Canada should have the same entitlement to
service and emergency instructions in French, just as a unilingual
anglophone travelling in Quebec would expect service in English,
Justice Martineau said.

The rulings were released Wednesday, less than one month after the
railway came under fire following complaints emergency evacuation
instructions had only been given in English, angering some francophone
passengers travelling from Toronto to Ottawa. Via, a federal Crown
corporation, adopted the bilingualism requirement for new employees in
1986 and the staffers say they have missed out on promotions and some
were not given French language training to achieve bilingual status.
They also argued that 75% of employees on the Western Transcontinental
are bilingual, which ensures services can be provided in both official
languages without affecting the futures of the unilingual workers. The
judge noted that Via disputes the number.

The employees were seeking, among other things, monetary compensation
for lost wages and pension benefits and damages for what some
described as “humiliation and embarrassment.”  The judge handed down
five separate rulings, but he noted they affected dozens of other
complainants. The five employees who challenged Via’s language policy
in court were Mark Collins, Brian Norton, Margaret Temple, and Wendy
Seesahai, who are all based in Winnipeg, and Brenda Bonner, who lives
in Vancouver. They were seeking varying amounts in compensation and
other damages. The highest claim came from Seesahai, who wanted
$150,000.


 http://www.nationalpost.com/news/Employees+lose+Rail+language+policy+challenge/1976879/story.html#ixzz0qkaxeR94

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