Canadian Employment Law Today

January 17, 2018

Focuses on human resources law from a business perspective, featuring news and cases from the courts, in-depth articles on legal trends and insights from top employment lawyers across Canada.

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PM40065782 Emplo y ment Law Today Canad ad a ian www.employmentlawtoday.com January 17, 2018 Investigation fi nding no harassment not necessarily a poor one: Court Investigation determined incidents didn't objectively prove harassment BY JEFFREY R. SMITH A FEDERAL government employee who disputed that her harassment complaint was properly investigated has been denied an appeal by the Federal Court. Katherine Green was the director of re- search and policy with the Specifi c Claims Branch of the federal government's Depart- ment of Aboriginal Aff airs and Northern Development Canada (AANDC) — which has now been renamed the Department of Indigenous and Northern Aff airs. In 2012 and 2013, Green alleged that a senior policy advisor with whom she worked — and who was a subordinate — caused multiple inci- dents that she considered harassment. Green said that the colleague: told a con- sultant that 16 employees left the workplace because of Green and "everyone is out to get you;" inappropriately questioned her assis- tant about a cancelled trip to British Colum- bia and emailed superiors about improper planning of the trip; stated he would have other employees' "guts for garters;" spread inappropriate rumours about her; and sent an anonymous email with false and infl am- matory remarks about her to a superior, after which he told Green she had "serious enemies" who "wanted to eat her liver." Settlement agreement doesn't quash sexual harassment complaint Power imbalance, lack of advice, small settlement amount off ered all factors in making agreement unfair to harassed worker BY JEFFREY R. SMITH A BRITISH Columbia woman who signed a settlement agreement stating she would drop a human rights complaint for sexual harassment by her employer in exchange for $800 will be able to continue with the complaint, the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal has ruled. e 24-year-old female worker joined the employer in May 2017 in a position cleaning recreational vehicles (RVs). e employer shared a parking lot with another business that also had jobs for the worker — owned by a man referred to as Mr. S. — so she accepted work from the owners of both businesses on an on-call basis. A few weeks into the job, on June 3, the worker was alone in the RV lot with the owner of her main employer — who was a 62-year-old man — when the owner asked CREDIT: IQONCEPT/SHUTTERSTOCK Taxi company not liable for driver's sexual assault pg. 3 Company gave driver opportunity but nature and expectations of the job didn't increase risk of assault Sexual harassment in the workplace pg. 4 Newsmaking incidents have organizations considering how best to deal with and prevent it with Meghan McCreary AGREEMENT on page 6 » OBJECTIVE on page 7 » ASK AN EXPERT pg. 2 Requirement to investigate sexual harassment complaints with ASK AN EXPERT Requirement to investigate sexual harassment complaints

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