View cases - Stewart McKelvey

[9] For their part, Skeena and the WCB accept that Mr. Pannu wore a beard because of hisfaith. They concede that he has established a prima facie case of discrimination because ofreligion against each of them, and that each of the WCB and Skeena bears the burden ofjustifying its actions.Chronology of events[10] In 1973, Mr. Pannu began working for the company that became Skeena. He moved tothe recaust department in 1976. He worked his way up the line of progression in thatdepartment: he started as a Utilityman, moved up to Assistant Recaust Operator (“ARO”), and,in 1980, became Recaust Operator, the senior person in the line of progression.[11] The recaust department operates 24 hours a day, broken into 12-hour day and night shifts.Four crews, consisting of a Recaust Operator, ARO and Utilityman, fill each shift. There is alsoa pool of an additional 4-5 Utilitymen who can be assigned to a crew as needed. Each crewgenerally works a “tour” of 2 day or night shifts, then rotates to two night or day shifts.[12] The Utilityman position is an entry-level position. Turnover is high. Utilitymen have littleknowledge of the non-condensable gas (“NCG”) system or of the control room. A Utilitymanmay elect to be trained for an ARO position either by bidding successfully for a vacant AROposition (success depends on seniority) or because the shift supervisor considers that a “relief”’ARO is needed. “Relief” persons are trained to fill positions higher than those they occupy inthe event that the more senior person is absent from their regular shift. The more seniorUtilitymen are the people who would most likely be trained as “relief” AROs or who wouldsuccessfully bid for any ARO opening. Similarly, the more senior AROs would be trained asrelief Recaust Operators and/or would be able to obtain those positions if they became vacant.[13] Training is done on the job; however, someone else fills the trainee’s position while he orshe is in training. That is, the trainee is considered to be absent from his or her shift while intraining. Generally, it takes 3 tours (or 144 hours) to train a Utilityman as an ARO. It takes 4tours (192 hours) to train an ARO to be a Recaust Operator.[14] In 1983, Mr. Pannu grew a beard as an expression of his Sikh faith and in preparation forhis baptism as a Sikh, which occurred in 1985. At that time, the recaust department contained3