An employer must not take any discriminatory action against an employee who:
- requests or requires the employer to comply with the Act;
- seeks enforcement of the Act;
- is pregnant or is temporarily disabled because of pregnancy;
- has applied for or taken an employment leave or is otherwise absent from the workplace as allowed by the legislation; or
- has requested a modification of the employee’s duties or a reassignment to other duties because of a disability, including a temporary disability due to pregnancy.
Employers who terminate an employee in one of these protected categories must show that the termination was not related to the protected categories. For example:
- the project that the employee was employed to work on is completed or no longer required and all comparable employees are laid off; and
- the employer can show other reasons for dismissal, such as performance or misconduct; or
- the employer can show that the employee voluntarily resigned.
Even if an employer terminates an employee with notice, they may be found to have discriminated against the employee if the termination was based on one of the protected grounds. If so, the employer must reinstate the employee and pay any unpaid wages the employee may have earned if they were not terminated.