The British Columbia Court of Appeal has unanimously held that the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal did not have jurisdiction under the BC Human Rights Code to hear an age discrimination complaint filed by a lawyer against a national law firm – a limited liability partnership – in which he was an equity partner.
As part of the law firm’s partnership agreement, there was a mandatory retirement age of 65. The partner filed a human rights complaint on the basis that he was discriminated against by the partnership on the basis of age. The Court of Appeal rejected the argument that a partner could be “employed” for the purposes of the BC Human Rights Code and found that there was no “employment” relationship between the law firm and its partner. As such, the partner could not advance a human rights complaint that he was discriminated against in “employment”.
The Court of Appeal set aside the decision of the Human Rights Tribunal and the BC Supreme Court, both of which had held that the partner was employed, for the purposes of the BC Human Rights Code, and thus was entitled to advance the age discrimination complaint.
A copy of the decision can be found here: http://www.courts.gov.bc.ca/jdb-txt/CA/12/03/2012BCCA0313.htm
