A Vancouver woman speaks for her experience with discrimination in the workplace while she was pregnant and works in the branch of the distribution of the British Columbia alcohols.
Harmony Powell said she got pregnant by working as a project manager in the business, but she said it was a difficult pregnancy.
She said that she had suffered from various physical symptoms, including stunning, fatigue, brain fog and exhaustion that had an impact on her ability to exercise her tasks effectively at work.
Powell said that she had said to her supervisor, Ms. Fariba Pacheleh, of her pregnancy in February 2019, and she said that she told Pacheleh that she had faced important physical and mental challenges linked to her first pregnancy in 2017. In addition, she said that she had made a miscarriage and had lost twins in her second pregnancy in June 2018.
However, Powell said that his supervisor was not accommodating, marking her as absent without leave and giving her a formal reprimand letter for performance problems shortly before his due date.
According to the British Columbia Human Rights CourtPacheleh was “frustrated by the unpredictability of the complainant’s absences, while the complainant socialized during his work and the fact that the complainant does not enter her hours in her time leaves.”
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On June 5, 2019, Pacheleh made a note for herself, partly coming out the following:
“Harmony Powell still uses different excuses to be late, especially after the weekend, she comes around 11 or even noon. She used all kinds of apology before and after her pregnancy, the excuses have changed to need to sleep more, etc. (sic)
Powell ended up having to make a short -term handicap on July 8, 2019, until the start of his maternity leave, which was to start in early September.
She said that on August 6, Pacheleh had sent her a letter, advising her a meeting concerning her performance at work when she returns from maternity leave.
“Receiving something like that, after what was already a huge event, was really quite devastating,” Powell told Global News.
“My daughter was to be born and I did not know if she would be fine, and now I had to face, like this, and my employer knew all of this, and I had the impression of who I was or what affected me did not matter.”
Powell took the question that was the victim of discrimination at work because of his pregnancy in the Human Rights Tribunal of British Columbia in 2020.
In 2024, the court reigned in its favor.
She is now taking over the distribution of the British Columbia alcohols in court, asking to be compensated for the way it was processed and fighting the company’s request that it reimburses the salary recharge of $ 37,000 which was given to her during her maternity leave because she was not returned to work.
Powell told Global News that she had already spent $ 25,000 on lawyers and which was now a lawsuit without legal aid.
However, she said that she was fighting for herself, her daughter and other women.
The BC Liquor Distribution Branch told Global News that she could not comment on the case.
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