harassment policy

Sexual harassment house of cards

January 8, 2018 Michele Glassford Employee Relations, Employment/Labour Standards, Health and Safety, HR Policies and Procedures, Human Resources, Human Rights, Privacy and Security

Another week, another list of public allegations of sexual abuse, sexual assault and sexual harassment against high profile men in the entertainment industry, politics and beyond. The onslaught of allegations, which began in earnest with the allegations against Harvey Weinstein, followed soon after by allegations against what appears to be almost every other man in Hollywood, created a #MeToo movement indicating that it is a rare occurrence for a woman to have not been abused or harassed, with many instances work-related.

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Protecting employees from social media harassment

February 1, 2017 Devry Smith Frank LLP Employee Relations, Employment/Labour Standards, Health and Safety, HR Policies and Procedures, Human Resources, Human Rights, Union Relations

It is well known that employees have certain legal obligations to their employer with respect to the content of their social media profiles. An arbitrator recently confirmed that employers also need to be careful about the content of their social media pages as it relates to their employees.

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Your organization needs a social media policy

October 2, 2013 Employer Advisor, McCarthy Tétrault LLP Employee Relations, Employment/Labour Standards, HR Policies and Procedures, Human Resources, Human Rights, Privacy and Security, Training and Development

More than 19 million Canadians check Facebook at least once per month and 14 million check every day. There are more than 200 million active users of Twitter, and around 400 million tweets sent daily. LinkedIn boasts 8 million Canadian users. These stats confirm what you probably already know: your employees are on social media. They are likely on social media multiple times a day, which means that they are likely using social media at work.

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Learn the latest! — Responding to human rights harassment complaints: Guidelines from the HRTO

March 26, 2013 Stringer LLP Conferences, HR Policies and Procedures, Human Resources, Human Rights, Training and Development

You are an employer that has just received a harassment complaint from an employee. The complaint is against a valued employee who you do not want to lose. But you are also worried that you will be faced with an expensive human rights complaint or lawsuit. What do you do?

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Supervisor circulated pornography, damaged employment relationship, terminated for cause

March 25, 2013 Adam Gorley Employee Relations, Employment/Labour Standards, Health and Safety, HR Policies and Procedures, Human Resources, Human Rights, Training and Development

When a workplace supervisor accessed pornographic, racist and other inappropriate material via a work computer and circulated it to employees and employer contacts, the employer had just cause to dismiss him. The employee claimed he was wrongfully dismissed, but the Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench was not convinced and acceded to the employer’s request to dismiss the employee’s claim without trial.

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Yet another reason for employers to avoid ‘locker-room mentality’ at work

October 16, 2012 Simon Heath, BA, MIR, LLB, Heath Law Human Resources, Human Rights

Just in case employers needed yet another reason to be careful to ensure that employees in their workplaces treat one another with respect and avoid a “locker room mentality”, the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal has provided one. In Lombardi v. Walton Enterprises, (2012) HRTO 1675 the Tribunal found a corporate employer and Assistant Manager jointly and severally liable for homophobic slurs directed at an employee.

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New policy regarding sexual and gender-based harassment

March 11, 2011 Christina Catenacci Human Resources, Human Rights

On March 8, 2011, just in time for International Women’s Day, the Ontario Human Rights Commission released a new policy regarding sexual and gender-based harassment. It has been noted that although great strides have been made for women in the past hundred years, there is still a long way to go to eliminate the barriers women face. The new policy deals mainly with sexual harassment in employment, housing and education.

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Clarification on Ontario Bill 168

January 28, 2010 Yosie Saint-Cyr, LL.B. Managing Editor Health and Safety, Human Resources

On January 27, 2010, I attended the HRPA annual conference. I was most interested on the session titled, Violence in the Workplace: An Update on Bill 168 from the Ministry of Labour. I needed some clarification on possible exemptions to the new violence and harassment prevention law and the application of certain measures in the bill.

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Why all the fuss about workplace bullying?

January 12, 2010 Andrew Lawson Health and Safety, Human Resources

In 1988 a man applied for Worker’s Compensation due to the stress of being teased, at work, about his appearance. His claim was denied. Almost 20 years later another man made a similar claim, a claim that was allowed; Worker’s comp paid up. Change was on the horizon.

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