Canadian HR Reporter

CANADIAN HR REPORTER November 28, 2016 NEWS 21 © 2016 Thomson Reuters Canada Limited 00240HF-84826 -SK Congratulations Graham J. Clarke On the 25th anniversary of Clarke's Canada Industrial Relations Board For 25 years, Graham has written and updated successive editions of this classic work (previously Canada Labour Relations Board: An Annotated Guide), offering precise summaries of reported Board cases, insightful commentary, and invaluable cross-references between key Canada Labour Code sections. Clarke's Canada Industrial Relations Board contains 45 years of board case law and incorporates all recent major Code amendments. Graham J. Clarke, a bilingual labour arbitrator/mediator, served as a Canada Industrial Relations Board Vice-Chair from 2007-2016. In addition to acting as legal counsel to the Board's first Chair, Mr. Marc Lapointe, Q.C., Graham practised labour, employment and administrative law for two decades in private practice. He is currently a roster arbitrator for the Canadian Railway Office of Arbitration and Dispute Resolution, as well as an approved arbitrator on the Federal Minister of Labour's list for Code and other employment-related matters. bullying on a different level," he said. "ings across Canada have changed drastically in the last five to 10 years." In the case of the Calgary Police Service, traditional police culture as a paramilitary group is one rea- son why bullying and harassment may be prevalent, said Durling. "Those organizations were originally structured around a form of hierarchical bullying and so they really need to change be- cause it's inbred into that system, and has been for a long period of time." Most of these groups — which are historically male-dominated — are struggling to become more inclusive, said Pat Ferris, a partner at Janus Associates Psychological Services in Calgary. "You're going to get some ten- sion in that mentality." ere is also a fine line between constructive criticism and bully- ing, said Chodos. "It's unfortunate sometimes that the line between humour and harassment can be a little fuzzy: What one person finds humor- ous is something another person deems to be bullying or a violation of human rights," he said. "Some people take these things more seriously than others, and nobody's wrong." Constructive criticism is a management right but bullying can be characterized as taking it one step too far into a personal attack, said Mason. "It's usually about abuse of power." Impact of bullying e risks to workers and compa- nies can be devastating, accord- ing to Lorna McTavish, founder of Project Millie, an organization dedicated to bringing visibility to workplace bullying, in Burlington, Ont. "If you don't deal with it, there could be increased absenteeism, higher turnover, decreased mo- rale and productivity and poor customer service," she said. Bullied workers can become disengaged, not only from the workplace, but from all personal contact, said McTavish. "It's very serious. ey feel so knocked down," she said. "I've talked to people who have been in a job for 30 years, and now they don't have jobs and they don't have any support because the people that they worked with kind of backed away (from addressing the issue) because they don't want anything to happen to them." People who have been bullied at work can have post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symp- toms, said Ferris. "We need to look at this as a se- vere injury, not just conflict, not just the stress response, but some- thing that goes in many cases well beyond that. If they are off work, getting them back into the work- place is often incredibly difficult." Best practices When bullying does take place, it is incumbent upon management and HR to properly address it, said Mason. "It's what you do with it that counts: Do you take it seriously or do you just fluff it under the carpet?" Companies must be willing to investigate the incidents promptly and provide remedial action after the investigation. "Sometimes, people don't know that they crossed the line," she said. HR specialists need to be suf- ficiently trained to investigate allegations after something has happened, said Ferris. "It takes great skill and under- standing of human dynamics." It shouldn't be enough to say, "Well you didn't use the word harassment, therefore, we are not doing anything about it," said Chodos. "A worker may not nec- essarily use the terms 'bullying' and 'harassment' when report- ing something and they may not necessarily do it in writing, which means you have to look for cer- tain cues in what's being said, and if you are at all in doubt, if there's an HR (department)... go speak to that person." But a probe into a possible bul- lying incident can be costly, ac- cording to Mason, with average external investigations costing an employer $10,000. "Most companies would pre- fer to spend their money in other ways," she said. "It's better to be putting the money into training and policy to prevent it and to protect the company's good name and to protect the workers." e challenge is to get the mes- sage across clearly throughout the organization that harassment or bullying will not be tolerated in any form, said Mason, adding strong policies must strictly forbid bullying and harassment. And annual training, especially with new hires, is essential. "It sets a standard and code of conduct and people know what's expected of them and when they potentially cross the line," she said. Even before a new employee is hired, it is prudent to ensure a company is not hiring a future bully, said Ferris. "Where HR can be very effec- tive is starting at the beginning, selecting people into the organi- zation that show emotional matu- rity, compassion and the capacity to treat people with dignity." Training budgets are also need- ed "to train everybody to take re- sponsibility and accountability," he said, and it is best practice to pro- mote "good bystanders" because "a bystander is one of the most powerful people in the dynamic." A company also needs to train all managers and employees on workplace harassment rules. "If you have a manager that isn't aware of their obligations and therefore doesn't take a bullying complaint seriously, it can get the company into a heap of trouble," said Chodos. Good work accomplished by HR is fruitless without buy-in from top-level management, said Durling. "One of the things that's a big challenge for the HR department is whether or not there's a culture that's created from the top-down that either supports them or doesn't. ere's no point in having an HR department that is paying lip service to 'Let's not bully' when in fact the management culture is one of bullying." Each boss should always cast a critical eye at his own behaviour and favour compassion over abra- siveness, said Ferris. "ey need to understand the difference between tough man- agement and bullying," he said, adding a manager should foster a culture inside a workgroup that will stand up to bullying, look out for each employee and create a "collaborative, close team that ac- tually cares about each other." It's about being a good role model, said Mason. "As a manager, always hold yourself up to the highest level of accountability and mirror the organization's values in your own conduct," she said. "It's important because they are in a leadership position and the workers don't see them engaging in behaviour that could be deemed to be inap- propriate or harassing or abusive of power or bullying." Put money into training BULLYING < pg. 1

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