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W IITBY FREIE7 PRESS, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 16, 1985, PAGE In hiring and promotion practises....00 00 Fi*rm found guilty of discrimination By SUSAN LESJAK Free Press Staff I's been two years since Wayne Offer lost his job at Memorial Gardens cemetery in Whitby and he readily admits he's on the verge suspect that the com- pany routinely discriminated against blacks, elderly people and ex-convicts. "What do we tell them if they corne looking for a job?" the management my wife was black, 1 became an em- barrassment to them," said Offer. "They had made a lot of racist comments in My presence and they must have feit uncomfor- reason for his lack of promotion. Orton said that the then branch manager, Sheldon Pelkey had told her that Wayne would neyer be given a management Dosition because of emorial Gardens dC.renatOrli Wayne and Pat Offer and their one year old son Parrish, pcketed outside of Memorial Gardens cemetery last week in protest of the racist hiring and promotion policies of the company. The Ontario Human Rights Commission found the company guilty of racism when it failed to promote Offer to a managerial position due to the color of his wife's skin. Free Press Staff Photo of a nervous breakdown. Once the company's top cemetery plot salesman. Offer was f r- st denied promotion and later denied access to the sales leads and con- tracta necessary to per. form his job. In January, of 1984, his employment was effectively ter- minated. The white native-born Canadian believes he was fired because his wife is black. He has lodged a complaint of racism against Memorial Gardens with the Ontario Human Righta Commission and îs suing the company for wrongful dismissal. Offer has accused the company of racist hiring and promotion practises. Commenta made by management soon after Offer was hired in 1981, led him to is reported to have asked the new sales team. "That the job is taken." It wasn't :until after Offer had already established himself as a top producer, and had received >numerous, congratulatory letters from the company, that the management discovered his wife was Jamnaican. It was then, according to Offer, that the troubl es began. First he was passed over for two management positions which went to salespeople with lower volume sales and less senior ity. Shortly af- terwards Offer was in- formed that he needn't bother coming to sales meetings. Leads and contracts were later cut off. "When they found out table." According to hlm, fellow employee Dianne Orton, confided to his wife Pat that the cuuple's interracial marriage was the "iconcerns relating to the fact that his wife is black." During the Human Rights Commission in- vestigation, Pelkey denied he made the If yau had to entirely rebuild your home tamorrow, could you? Wth State Farm s Homeowners Extra Policy. you can gel guaranteed 100% coverage on your home plus extra protection for your con- tents Just cal/ to see il you qoaflfy C LAU DE ROCHEFORT 6 Roebuck St., Brooklin 7, Bus. 6554804l or 6554841l statement, while Orton confirmed that he had. In the initial findings of the commission, released last spring, the Commission states that while it was unable to determine whether 0f- fer was terminated because he is married to a black person, "the evidence seems to sup- port allegation that he was not promoted to manaÉer because his wife is black. " The commission's findings state further that as a resuit of vestigation into Offer's allegations, routine discrimination against blacks was found. When the management of Memorial Gardens Canada Ltd. was asked why it had hired only six blacks in the past 3 years, the personnel manager said that few blacks had applied for the sales jobs. As a resuit of contac- ting the blacks that had been hired, however, the commmission found history of discouraging blacks from applying for jobs. Furthermore, one former black employee acknowledged that he had left the company as a resuit of racial harrassment and discrimination. This same individual later lodged a discrimination complaint against Memorial Gardens and subsequently received an apology from the company s president. CONT'D ON PG. 21 SOLID OAK ANO PINE FURNITURE ACCESSORY.i NOW ON .arge val mirror vith aheif "THE PERFECT XMAS GIFT" SALE Toilai Paper Holdar 110 DUNLOP ST. E., WHITBY 666-1331 Open Mon.Wd106 Thurs.-Fri. 10-9, Sat. 10-5 SUNDAYS 114 < I OUR GREAT SALE CONTINUESI ON A LARGE IN-STOCK SELECTION S * SAWA AJAX SABR 140 Simcoe St. S. 1313 Harwood N.793 Markham Rd. (S ofJh<t) (.o w.41 S. of Ellesmere in * (S ofJohnSt. <N.0f wy. 01) Panted Post Plaza) * 5791655 6860719 4314458 I --