In Lindsey v. McDonald's Restaurants of Canada Ltd., the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario denied McDonald's preliminary request that it be removed as a respondent to an application alleging discrimination by a former employee.
The applicant, Melanie Lindsey, brought an application against McDonald's Restaurants of Canada Limited's and Manna Foods Inc. alleging that her former employer's policy requiring part-time employees to be available for midnight shifts had an adverse effect on her due to her child care obligations. Lindsey plead that this constituted discrimination and a breach of the Human Rights Code as it was a failure to accommodate her family and marital status.
McDonald's sought an order from the Tribunal dismissing the application against it on the basis that Lindsey was an employee of Manna, the franchisee, and that McDonald's was simply a franchisor providing operational support to Manna.
The Tribunal did not accept McDonald's argument that a lack of participation or control in the day to day operations of the franchisee constituted a basis for dismissal. Rather, the Tribunal followed an existing approach of declining to dismiss applications against franchisors at a preliminary stage and held that the question of McDonald's liability should be determined following evidence and argument at the hearing.
Franchisors should keep this decision in mind when determining whether or not to attempt to extricate themselves from human rights litigation between their franchisees and the franchisees' employees.
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