Canadian HR Reporter

4 www.hrreporter.com N E W S training will be necessary, just to make sure that there's active responses to those types of notices." There is also a one-year cap on the entire resolution process, unless one of the key parties is temporarily absent from work for more than 90 consecutive days, she says. "I see people going on stress leaves as a result of these types of investigations quite often — it's not uncommon. They're very stressful for folks," says Freitag. "On the flip side, if you have someone who's gone for 60 days, that's going to have a major impact depending on what phase you're in in the investigation… It's almost too prescriptive or it doesn't leave a lot of room for discretion, which worries me." As far as the timelines go, they've set out obligations on investigation, deadlines and resolution processes, so the nature of the complaint will dictate how quickly that needs to be completed, says Fong. "Once a complaint is received, the new regulations indicate it has to be completed, including implementation of any recommendations, within one year of receiving the occurrence. But how an employer initially responds to that will depend on the type of complaint," she says. "It will present some challenges for employers for more complex complaints, given the nature of the investigation. Some simplistic complaints could just require a mediation session between the complainant and the respondent and then it's resolved — and that could just take a number of weeks. But more complex complaints [and] investigations can sometimes take over a year, depending on the circumstances. So, I think this will put a time pressure on some employers for those complex ones." They're reasonable timeframes, says Kuretzky. "Bottom line is that it's good. It is designed to move quickly and appro- priately so that someone who's got an issue, it's dealt with [and] they're advised of the protective and corrective action that's going to take place. And it is designed to happen in a timely fashion when a complaint is made." Annual reporting of all occurrences required by government To support enforcement of the regulations, employers will also have to keep a number of records, says the government, including: records of all notices of occurrences of harassment and violence in their workplace; records of the actions taken to address the notices; records of the decisions they make in the event they are unable to agree on an issue that they must do jointly; and records of any delays to the timelines. Bill C-65 also requires employers to report annually all occurrences of harassment and violence to the government and, secondly, that the government prepare and publish an annual report related to harassment and violence within federally regulated workplaces. The draft regulations had required semi-annual reporting, but it was thought that this would be too cumbersome for employers, says Freitag. "It's not to say that the reporting requirements are gone; there's still some, I would say, onerous reporting requirements. For example, we still have that, March 1 of each year, the employer is going to have to provide the minister with a report setting out the total number of occurrences, where those occurrences are happening, any types of occurrence that fall under the Canadian Human Rights Act and that variety of information." CHRR AVOIDANCE TECHNIQUES AGAINST SEXUAL ADVANCES "It will present some challenges for employers for more complex complaints, given the nature of the investigation." Amy Fong, McCarthy Tétrault 76% Percentage of women who have avoided people who made them feel uncomfortable 65% Percentage of women who avoided people with a reputation for inappropriate behaviour 49% Percentage of women who dressed conservatively 46% Percentage of women who warned others about people who behave inappropriately 37% Percentage of women who avoided drinking alcohol with colleagues 22% Percentage of women who avoided social outings with co-workers Source: Angus Reid The RCMP has faced several class-action lawsuits around harassment and bullying.

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