Four years ago, Ronald Morrison moved to the southern interior of British Columbia to care for his aging father who suffered from dementia.  That experience convinced him that he wanted to pursue a career as a caregiver to the elderly.  So he enrolled in and completed a course which would permit him to work in that field.  He was the only man in a class of seven.

The good news was that there were plenty of jobs for which Morrison was qualified; the bad news was that he couldn't seem to land one.  He applied for a job at the extended care wing of the Mountain Lake Seniors Community in Nelson, B.C., but was turned down.  That unit was operated by AdvoCare.  He later found work in the same facility but in a unit not operated by AdvoCare. 

Sure enough, when AdvoCare took over Morrison's unit, he was fired.

Morrison eventually sued AdvoCare for sex discrimination and recently the tribunal hearing his case found in his favor.  The hearing officer, Marlene Tyshynski ruled that Morrison had equal or superior qualifications to those of 10 women whom AdvoCare hired during the time it was denying him employment.  Tyshynski further found that he was denied employment because he's male and awarded him $12,000 compensation.

There are a couple of interesting things.  According to this article, when he applied for the job originally,

the woman who conducted job interviews at Advocare didn't feel comfortable with Morrison, who is a tall and muscular man (CBC, 9/9/09).

What interests me about that is that the woman in charge of hiring for AdvoCare apparently saw nothing wrong with refusing to hire a person based on sex because she "felt uncomfortable."  I wonder where she got the idea that sex discrimination in employment is appropriate as long as one feels "uncomfortable."  Did she not realize that such a concept, if accepted by courts, would totally abrogate laws against sex discrimination (or any other kind of discrimination for that matter)?

Second, anyone who knows much about elder care knows that a certain amount of strength in a caregiver is a real plus.  The fact is, as most nurses know, that the job of moving and turning patients who can't do so themselves, is heavy, difficult work.  Not a few nurses are injured doing just that.  So a man who is "tall and muscular," should be considered particularly well-qualified, all other things being equal. 

So not only did the AdvoCare interviewer discriminate against Morrison, she didn't do existing caregivers any favors either by depriving them of help they may have been unable to find elsewhere.

Thanks to Mike for the heads-up.

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 13th, 2009 at 10:15 am and is filed under Sexism, Men, Women and Work.