Yellowknife (Mar 13/06) - A man who says he faced discrimination when applying for a water board job has been awarded $9,500 in a landmark human rights decision.

Dr. Gian Sangha of Surrey, B.C. was one of 12 applicants interviewed for a job by the Mackenzie Valley Land and Water Board in August 2001 but was told he was overqualified for any of the four regulatory officer positions.

A Sikh immigrant with a PhD from a German university and the author of numerous research papers and books, Sangha lodged a complaint the following year with the Canadian Human Rights Commission.

On Feb. 24, a Canadian Human Rights Tribunal judge issued a ruling, one that fell far short of the $150,000 in lost wages Sangha was seeking, but significant for its view on the troubles educated, visible-minority immigrants face when looking for work.

"While many native-born Canadian may find themselves seeking or performing work for which they are overqualified, they are less prone to this situation because the native-born do not face the same widespread exclusion from jobs that utilize the full extent of their qualifications," wrote J. Gordon Sinclair in his 45-page decision.

The 56-year-old received one of the highest scores among those tested for the job, but at least one interviewer felt it would be inappropriate to offer employment to Sangha because he would likely grow bored with the junior-level position and quit.

In his ruling, Sinclair ordered that should the board choose to interview a visible minority immigrant in the future, they should cease disqualifying candidates for being overqualified.

He noted that the water board had already changed its hiring practices, and would likely not run into a similar situation in the future.

Bob Wooley, the board's executive director, said the board hires an outside consultant to conduct job interviews.

He said the ruling exonerated the board of making hiring decisions based on race, which Sangha also alleged. He said the board had no idea that deciding someone was overqualified could constitute a human rights violation.

"I wasn't sure how people were suppose to know that," said Wooley.

He was disturbed by the amount of personal information found in the report, including test scores of job applicants.

"I'm not very happy about that but it's a public document," said Wooley. "I don't think that's appropriate but I don't have any control over it."

He said the board made that point numerous times during the tribunal last May but were ignored.

Roche Levac, a registry officer for the tribunal, said no official objection to releasing job interview results were ever made by the board during the hearings.

"If the respondent had an issue at that time, it should've been objected," said Levac.

Sangha could not be reached for comment.