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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
