Forcing reporter to retire at 65 discriminatory: N.B. court

After 34 years as a reporter for the St. John Telegraph Journal in New Brunswick,  Khalid Mallik was forced to retire in March 2008 when he turned 65.  The Journal's parent company Brunswick News Inc., took the position  that Mallik had reached normal retirement age and consistently failed to meet performance standards.  So, the company fired him using a  clause in the collective agreement which appeared to authorize the dismissal. He received a special severance package of 52 weeks pay worth $48,009 as required by the agreement.

 A year later, Mallik filed an age discrimination complaint with the New Brunswick Human Rights Commission. The Commission investigated and dismissed his claim because they were convinced that  it was his history of poor performance and not his age which led to the decision to fire him. Mallik didn't accept that decision and applied to the Court of Queen’s Bench for an order to quash the dismissal and tell the Human Rights Commission to appoint a Board of Inquiry to hear his case.

Mr. Justice McLellan decided that there was no performance-related issues that had led to Mallik’s firing.  He was going about his work as he always had and although there were four written warnings over a three-year period, they were not serious enough to justify a suspension, let alone a firing.
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