Former mill workers say their medical records were used against them in the hiring process

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speakup

It is a community controversy that won't go away.

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PHOTO BY STEVEN HAWKES

Former St. Anne-Nackawic employees, from left, Glen "Oil Can" Mills, Gerald MacDonald, Michael Hawkes and Victor Greer stage a peaceful protest on the Trans Canada Highway at the Nackawic exit ramp. The group of men want AV Nackawic to return their medical records, claiming they have been used against them in the re-hiring process.

Last Tuesday morning, a group of former St.-Anne Nackawic employees staged another protest along the exit ramp of the Trans Canada Highway near Nackawic, demanding AV Nackawic release their medical files.

"They still refuse to give them out," said the group's spokesman Steven Hawkes. "What we are concerned about is it is against Human Rights in the first place for them to have these files."

The controversy went public last month when the group gathered outside the main gates of AV Nackawic as mill employees headed to work. The group wanted to bring attention to the issue.

When the Aditya Birla Group and Tembec Canada reopened the mill in 2005, Hawkes explained, company officials asked the former St. Anne-Nackawic mill employees to sign over their medical records as part of the hiring process. At the time, he said, many workers did so in hopes of getting their jobs back.

"(AV Nackawic) should have never asked for these files in the first place, and it has left us to the conclusion – and the facts support this – that they were screening former St. Anne-Nackawic employees during the hiring process," Hawkes said.

He stated this was done before the company began the interviews, which he said is against the law. People are not required to have physicals prior to offer of employment, he said. Those records contain confidential details on every employee, he added, and are the property of St. Anne-Nackawic, not AV Nackawic.

"We have rights," said Hawkes. "They have broken Human Rights laws in what they have done."

At the time of the first protest, the lawyer representing AV Nackawic, Jamie Eddy, said his client obtained the medical files in a legal manner and is not required to turn them over to the group.

"All of the documentation that is in those medical files was obtained legally, and there is no legal obligation for AVN to release those files," Eddy said.

He added the files are sealed and will be turned over to his client following the resolution of the outstanding Human Rights complaints.

But Hawkes said the group members are not going away until they get what is rightfully theirs. After last week's protest, he said he feels the group got its message out, noting many motorists stopped and asked what was going on.

"They believe it is quite deplorable that a company would hold back medical files," said Hawkes. "They said, ‘that is ridiculous, it doesn't belong to them and they have no rights to them whatsoever.'"