Sabbath showdown heads to Quebec human rights tribunal

A Montreal spa owner says she plans to fight a human rights commission decision that she pay damages to a former employee after he alleged she would not let him work on the Sabbath.

Hairstylist Richard Zilberg says Spa Orazen owner Iris Gressy told him he could not work Saturday, the busiest day of the weekend, because he is Jewish. Saturday is Shabbat, the Jewish Sabbath. The salon, however, remained open and non-Jewish employees worked that day.

Last month, the Quebec Human Rights Commission informed the two of its recommendation that Gressy pay Zilberg $20,000 for lost wages, moral damages and punitive damages for violating Zilberg’s civil rights.

Gressy did not comply before the Oct. 23 deadline. Now the case will move on to the tribunal.

Gressy, who is also Jewish, told Yahoo Canada News on Thursday she intends to fight the allegations because Zilberg’s claims are “completely fabricated.”

She said Zilberg worked for her for about 10 months in 2011 and 2012, but he did not get along with other staff members who worked Saturdays, so she switched him to Sunday shifts.

“I didn’t let him work on Saturday because it didn’t suit me that he work on Saturday. I needed him on Sunday,” she said.

Gressy said Zilberg was eventually fired for making a scene in the salon and insists she did not discriminate against him in any way.

But Zilberg said he was fired after he told a client about the new rule that he was not allowed to work on Saturdays — a rule he claims Gressy told him to keep confidential — and the client told Gressy it was a crazy idea.

“Moments later I was fired,” he said in an interview. “It was ridiculous.”

He said even now, three years later and at a new salon, he is still trying to rebuild his clientele and his life.

“I was devastated,” he said.

The commission’s decision that Gressy pay damages to Zilberg is not a binding one, Patricia Poirier, communications co-ordinator for Quebec’s Human Rights Commission, noted in an email.

“If the parties do not agree to the measures put forward by the Commission, the Commission takes the case to the Human Rights Tribunal and represents the complainant before the court,” she wrote.

Zilberg sought out the help of the Center for Research-Action on Race Relations (CRARR) to launch his religious discrimination complaint.

CRARR said the commission, which does not make its decisions public, asked Gressy to consider paying $12,500 for Zilberg’s loss of income, $5,000 for moral damages and $2,500 for punitive damages because she violated his civil rights.

CRARR executive director Fo Niemi called the case “special” because it’s uncommon for people within the same faith to discriminate against each other, “especially in the Jewish community.” It will be one of very few cases involving Jewish individuals as victims of discrimination to be brought before the tribunal in the last 20 years.

Niemi said over the past three years, witnesses have been interviewed as part of the investigation, including other former employees of Gressy’s and former clients. Gressy did not respond to a subpoena from the commission to give her side of the story, he said.

Niemi said a tribunal date has not yet been set, but it could take place within the next year.

Gressy said she has responded to all requests for information, but she hasn’t heard from the commission in about a year. A news conference held by Zilberg and CRARR earlier this week where they made the commission’s decision public caught her by surprise, she said.

She said in the past two days, she has received a number of calls from other salon owners in Montreal who are willing to write her letters of support.

“Why would I pay for something I’m not guilty of?” she said.

But Zilberg argues she is guilty, and while part of the case is getting money that is owed to him, it is also important to stand up for his religious rights.

“It’s not all about the money,” he said. “People have to stand up, each individual, that’s how you fight discrimination.”