The B.C. Human Rights Tribunal has dismissed a complaint against the University of Northern British Columbia (UNBC) by a former professor who alleged he was unjustly dismissed because of a mental disability.
Although his condition was not confirmed for nearly two years after he was let go, Dr. Siamak Rezaei, maintained the warning signs were there and both UNBC and the Faculty Association had a duty to inquire into the cause of his behaviour.
In a decision issued May 13, tribunal member Murray Geiger-Adams essentially agreed with positions of UNBC and the Faculty Association that there was there was no indication that his behaviour was anything other than that of someone who refused to get along.
In February 2006, UNBC decided not to renew a three-year appointment for Rezaei, who was on tenure track in the computer science department, because his behaviour was "disruptive" and "negatively affected" the program and "followed a pattern over time."
Slightly more than a year later, and shortly after he turned down a settlement that included a leave of absence, a payment and his resignation effective four months after his first term had ended, Rezaei "became aware, for the first time, of the possibility that he suffered from a mental disability."
Some 10 months later, Rezaei saw a specialist and was then referred to a psychologist who, in two reports provided in May and July 2008, expressed the opinion there was a connection between his diagnosed disability and the behaviour that led to his termination.
In August 2008, the association provided the reports to UNBC which responded by saying it would not review them because Razaei's employment had ended nearly two years before and an enforceable settlement agreement was in place that UNBC remained ready to honour.
During a hearing, UNBC cited case law that found even where the employer was aware of a physical disability, which it had accommodated in the past, it has no duty to make further inquiries in the absence of a change in the employee's behaviour or job performance.
The University also pointed to efforts to get Rezaei to change his ways before giving up on him.
In advancing his case, Rezaei noted that a consultant hired by UNBC as part of an effort to make the campus more collegial described Rezaei as "narcissistic" and argued that should have been enough to trigger a duty to inquire into his mental health.
But Geiger-Adams disagreed, noting the consultant used the term in its common meaning in ordinary speech, not as a matter of psychiatric diagnosis, and essentially concluded Rezaei was "very intolerant of everyone who did not give him his way."
"In all the circumstances of this case, I do not think that the respondents can be faulted for failing to make inquiries that Dr. Rezaei did not suggest, or undertake on his own behalf," Geiger-Adams writes.
The exact nature of Rezaei's disability was not disclosed.
