A 13-year-old Black girl singled out about cash shortages at a Vancouver juice bar has been awarded more than $27,000.A Vancouver juice bar and its manager have been ordered to pay a Black girl more than $27,000 in damages after a human rights tribunal found the manager discriminated against the then-13-year-old by singling her out as a potential thief.
A.B. was 13 when started as a dishwasher at Heirloom in April 2019. After two months, she was assigned to the juice bar where she worked as a counter server and juicer, which required her to handle the cash register. During the hearing last December, Stone testified he only wanted to inform A.B. about the irregularities as told to him by the accountant.
After the meeting, A.B. was reassigned to work in the back of the store. Her duties included cutting fruit and vegetables and washing dishes — a demotion, in her view. On Sept. 22, A.B. asked Stone for a reference. He declined, saying he had concerns about her work performance. In a manager log entry — the only one he had made for A.B. during her employment at Heirloom — he said A.B. wasn’t wearing her Heirloom shirt, set a bad example to newer staff, and doesn’t follow rules. In his testimony, he described her as “rude” and “distant.”
Stone and Greer said A.B. chose to resign for other reasons, but Prince said she believed A.B.’s evidence that she resigned due to a “poisoned” work environment.