Two female workers at a hospital in Montreal were awarded $15,000 in damages after they brought their matter before a human rights tribunal.

The Quebec tribunal ruled in favor of Mary Smith and Jenifer Bennett against Montreal’s Jewish General Hospital. Smith and Bennett claimed that they were being sexually discriminated against by the hospital because they were denied shifts because they were women.

The hospital argued that the women were kept from full time employment because the hospital works to accommodate Orthodox Jewish patients whose religion restricts contact between unmarried men and women. The Jewish population at the hospital consists of about one third of patients however, an even smaller minority follows Orthodox Talmudic law.

For more information, see this CBC new article.
For the ruling (en francais), follow this link