Lafferty v. Ford Motor Company of Canada Limited, 2014 HRTO 876

Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario

B E T W E E N:

James Lafferty Applicant

-and-

Ford Motor Company of Canada Limited Respondent

INTERIM DECISION

Adjudicator: Paul Aterman Date: June 16, 2014 Citation: 2014 HRTO 876 Indexed as: Lafferty v. Ford Motor Company of Canada Limited

WRITTEN SUBMISSIONS

James Lafferty, Applicant Self-represented

Ford Motor Company of Canada Limited, Respondent Lisa Kozma, Counsel

1This Application alleging discrimination with respect to employment because of disability and creed contrary to the Human Rights Code, R.S.O. 1990, c. H.19, as amended (the “Code”) was deferred on March 28, 2012 to await the outcome grievances filed on behalf of the applicant by his union. This is explained in the Tribunal’s Interim Decision 2012 HRTO 695.

2Since then the Tribunal has received status updates on the progress of the grievances. The applicant now has requested that his Application be re-activated because he feels that the grievances are taking too long to be referred to arbitration. In his request he does not indicate that he wants the grievances withdrawn. Instead he asks that they be referred to an arbitrator.

3The respondent opposes re-activation on the grounds that the grievances are moving along in the grievance process and are now at step 3.5 of the process under the collective agreement.

4While I can understand the applicant’s frustration at the time the grievances are taking, they appear to be moving forward through the process and the applicant still wants them to be dealt with through arbitration. In those circumstances, and for the reasons set out in the original decision to defer, I am not satisfied that the Application should be re-activated.

Order

5The request to re-activate the Application is denied.