UBC's Largest Employee Group Files Eight Human Rights Complaints Against University

VANCOUVER, Oct. 3, 2018 /CNW/ - The Association of Administrative and Professional Staff (AAPS), which represents management and professional staff at UBC, has assisted six of its members file a total of eight human rights complaints against the University. AAPS alleges that its members were terminated or denied a promotion on the basis of disability or pregnancy. The senior officials involved in these matters include Dean of Arts Gage Averill, Dean of Education Blye Frank, Dean of Health and Social Development and Associate Provost (UBC Okanagan) Gord Binsted and Chief Information Officer Jennifer Burns. The Complaints disclose allegations which have not yet been admitted by the University or proven at the tribunal.

"Legally, the University has an obligation to accommodate disabled employees so that they can continue to thrive in the workplace," said Joey Hansen, Executive Director of AAPS. "However, at UBC it seems that there are a number of instances where the University's senior leadership has, in our view, discarded disabled employees as though they were broken office furniture," continued Hansen.

AAPS' allegations against the University fly in the face of the University's highly-funded marketing campaign purporting to promote the health and well-being of its students and employees. In our opinion the marketing campaign does not reflect the realities for disabled individuals on campus. "While the University launches promotional campaigns and its leadership collects awards the University has already had to pay out two of the largest awards in the history of the BC Human Rights tribunal to two former students. University President Santa Ono has often referenced the road from "excellence to eminence" in his public statements. However those awards, coupled with the eight complaints AAPS has assisted its members in filing, leads us to fear that the University believes pregnant and disabled individuals are little more than speed bumps on that road," said Hansen.

Hansen goes on to claim that the University's negative treatment of these individuals did not end with the filing of the complaints. "AAPS considers the University to have added insult to injury by demanding these employees produce volumes of medical proof of illness or injury even though the University has previously accepted that these employees were ill or injured. In another instance, AAPS is alleging that the University took punitive action by retaliating against one of the individuals who filed a complaint."

Hansen concluded by saying he hopes that the University does the right thing by reinstating these employees and by taking proactive measures to ensure similar discriminatory actions don't occur in the future.

The Association of Administrative and Professional Staff of The University of British Columbia (AAPS) is the professional association for the Management and Professional Staff group at UBC. AAPS represents its approximately 4,500 members in collective bargaining and dispute resolution with the University.

SOURCE Association of Administrative and Professional Staff at UBC

please contact: Joey Hansen, Executive Director, (office) 604.822.8230 or (cell) 604.842.0831; Sarah Muff, Communications Coordinator, (office) 604.822.1935 or (cell) 604.351.3508