A Vancouver waiter says he wasn’t aggressive with staff, he’s just French. His firing is discrimination against his ‚direct and expressive‘ culture, he says
A waiter in Vancouver who lost his job for being rude and aggressive claims he was actually fired for being too French.
Guillaume Rey started working as a waiter at Milestones in October 2015. He filed a complaint with the B. C. Human Rights Tribunal against the restaurant and its parent company Cara Operations Ltd. after he was fired in August 2017. He alleges the accusations against him were a “discrimination against my culture” which “tends to be more direct and expressive.”
The restaurant applied to have the complaint dismissed on the basis that it had no reasonable prospect of success. But tribunal member Devyn Cousineau decided earlier this month that the complaint will proceed to a hearing.
Ray claims he was fired for his “direct, honest, and professional personality” and because he has “high standards which he learned in the French hospitality industry.” Rey also says that his manager had “mentioned casually on more than one occasion, that it might be because of my culture that other staff members think I am being aggressive.”
In the months leading up to his termination, Rey received some mixed reviews.
In April 2017, Rey’s manager noted that he received “great feedback from guests” and was “very friendly and professional with his tables.” In fact, at this time Rey was often assigned as a shift lead.
However, the same review notes that Rey had some “bad habits getting better,” that he could be “combative and aggressive,” and that he likes to “have fun and joke but should watch (his) temper in the moment.” Rey claims his manager did not discuss the negative comments with him, however he did sign the written appraisal.
Three months later, Rey had a disagreement with another waiter and his manager. According to a “Corrective Action Form,” he was warned not to have any more arguments after complaining about section sizes. Rey says he didn’t get a chance to explain his side of the story and only signed the form because he was told it was “purely procedural” and he feared for his job.
Less than a month later, Rey was working as a shift lead when he got into another argument with an employee. While Rey says he was merely trying to get one of the other servers to complete his duties, the server claims Rey was “berating and yelling” at him and that the incident caused him to “have issues with his anxiety.” The restaurant says the server was “borderline in tears” and refused to work with Rey anymore.
Rey was fired and his manager noted that he was “aggressive, rude, and disrespectful to the manager and another employee,” and that “this behaviour is repeated.”
In the decision, Cousineau says she’s not making a final determination about whether Rey’s rights have been violated, but says there wasn’t enough evidence presented to dismiss the complaint.
In order for Rey to be successful, he “would be required to prove at a hearing that the termination of his employment was related in some way to his French ancestry.”
