GILLAM, Man. -- The owners of a northern Manitoba motel have been ordered to pay a former waitress $15,000 for failing to take reasonable action to stop workplace harassment.
Wanda Ross filed a complaint with the Manitoba Human Rights Commission saying she was repeatedly subjected to racial slurs and discriminatory comments by two people, including the general manager, while she worked at the Gillam Motor Inn.
Ross, who is of African and First Nations descent, says when she reported the harassment to one of the owners she was told she was imagining things and was forced to tolerate the conduct.
The numbered company that owns the motel -- now operating as Kettle River Inn and Suites -- must pay an additional $2000 for the recklessness of their conduct in ignoring the appeals for assistance.
It must also pay a further $500 for failing to participate in the Manitoba Human Rights Commission's investigation.
Ross says in a commission release that she is very relieved with the outcome.
"This isn't just going to go away. I have to live with this every day of my life," she said. "More has to be done to make sure people aren't treated this way."
Human rights adjudicator Lawrence Pinsky said in his decision that racial attacks and insults about a person's ancestry "cut to the very core of a person's identity."
"Left unremedied the corrosive effect of this type of working environment on the individual is heinous. Permitting such commentary, if not normalizing it, creates or enables an environment in which decency, kindness, civility, productivity, and humanity are sacrificed," he said.
The company operates more than 10 hotels in northern Manitoba and northwestern Ontario.
