Law360 Canada ( June 29, 2021, 5:49 AM EDT) -- Appeal by the employer from a decision setting aside an Arbitration Board’s award that dismissed a nurse’s grievance based on discrimination due to family status. The nurse worked four 12-hour shifts followed by four days off in the emergency department of a major acute care hospital. As her husband also worked shifts, she was not required to incur child care costs. Two years later, the nurse was informed that her shift would change to become compliant with the Collective Agreement. The hospital denied the nurse’s request to stay in her current shift to accommodate her childcare obligations. She then moved into a casual position. To determine prima facie discrimination, the Board determined that it preferred the test set down in Johnstone, which provided that it was only if the employee had sought out reasonable alternative childcare arrangements unsuccessfully and remained unable to fulfil his or her parental obligations, that a prima facie case of discrimination would be made out. The Board held that while the nurse considered childcare options, she did not discuss with her husband the possibility of sharing a nanny or hiring childcare providers to cover overlaps. The Board majority concluded that as a result, the nurse did not seriously consider any option that would involve any cost. The reviewing judge held that the Supreme Court of Canada’s jurisprudence left no room for an articulation of the prima facie discrimination test that added an additional evidentiary requirement on a complainant. He held the Board’s failure to reconcile the Johnstone approach which elevated the burden of proof on the nurse with any Supreme Court jurisprudence was not reasonable, transparent or intelligible....