Employment Lawyer Calls BC EA’s Termination Discriminatory: CBC News

Interview Summary

The Coquitlam school district recently terminated Education Assistant Kristin MacDonald for refusing to shut down her OnlyFans profile. The school board argues MacDonald’s behaviour is considered egregious and she was not offered any severance pay due to the nature of her termination.

A Vancouver employment lawyer at Samfiru Tumarkin LLP represents MacDonald and spoke to CBC News’ On the Coast with Belle Puri on the EA’s rights and human rights claim.

Interview Notes

• Violation of code of conduct: In most cases, employers are within their legal rights to terminate an employee as long as the employee is provided with appropriate severance. “Generally speaking, if there is a breach of a code of conduct that so irreparably damages the trust inherent in an employment relationship, then an employer can actually terminate somebody’s employment without having to provide them with severance.”
• Grounds for termination: “Outside of a unionized context, you can be terminated for any reason. But the question for me, and the reason why Miss MacDonald has retained me, is because I think that the decision is discriminatory. So regardless of whether or not the reasons are good, grounded, sufficient, or legal, if they’re discriminatory, I think that that can be highly problematic.”
• Discriminatory reason for termination: “Occupational discrimination is fairly ubiquitous when it comes to sex work or work of this kind of nature. The vast majority of this sort of work is performed by women. There’s a real question here as to whether or not somebody’s sex has been discriminated against when they are fired for taking on a job that they had to do.”
• Connection to the work environment and online conduct: “I don’t think that there’s any connection on Miss MacDonald’s OnlyFans account to the fact that she is an educational assistant. And I don’t believe that she’s bound by those specific terms, as she’s not technically classified as an educator in B.C. as an EA.”
• Workplace policies for online behaviour: It is smart for employers to have policies in place with respect to all types of social media sites and platforms. Employers can expect employees to behave in a certain manner online, particularly if they have high visibility.