CSR | June 2018 | News
Relatively few victims come forward for fear of retaliation
WEBINARS
Interested in learning more about safety and HR issues directly from the experts? Check out the Canada
Professional Development Centre's live and on-demand webinars discussing topics such as Ontario's
sexual violence and harassment plan act, chemicals in the workplace, and fall protection.
Visit www.cpdcentre.ca/cos for more information.
©2018 Thomson Reuters Canada Ltd
ISBN/ISSN: 978-0-7798-2810-4
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
electronic, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the written
permission of the publisher (Thomson Reuters, Media Solutions, Canada).
Canadian Safety Reporter is part of the
Canadian HR Reporter group of publications:
• Canadian HR Reporter — www.hrreporter.com
• Canadian Occupational Safety magazine — www.cos-mag.com
• Canadian Payroll Reporter — www.payroll-reporter.com
• Canadian Employment Law Today — www.employmentlawtoday.com
• Canadian Labour Reporter — www.labour-reporter.com
See carswell.com for information
Safety Reporter
Canadian
www.safety-reporter.com
Published 12 times a year by
Thomson Reuters Canada Ltd.
Subscription rate: $139 per year
Customer Service
Tel: (416) 609-3800 (Toronto)
(800) 387-5164 (outside Toronto)
Fax: (416) 298-5106
E-mail: customersupport.legaltaxcanada@tr.com
Website: www.thomsonreuters.ca
One Corporate Plaza 2075 Kennedy Road
Toronto, Ontario, Canada M1T 3V4
Director, Media Solutions, Canada Karen Lorimer
Publisher/Managing Editor Todd Humber
Lead Editor Jeffrey R. Smith
Marketing & Audience
Development Manager Robert Symes
rob.symes@thomsonreuters.com
(416) 649-9551
Circulation Co-ordinator Keith Fulford
keith.fulford@thomsonreuters.com
(416) 649-9585
Sales Manager Paul Burton
paul.burton@thomsonreuters.com
(416) 649-9928
suite to rank-and-file employees
accountable, with clear and con-
sistently-applied consequences
for policy violations. Also, the
focus should be on creating an
incident-based harassment re-
gime and not one designed to
respond solely to employee com-
plaints. The reason, as noted in
the HRPA and Gandalf Group
surveys, is that relatively few
employees come forward when
they are sexually harassed or as-
saulted in the workplace, largely
due to a fear of retaliation by the
alleged harasser or ostracization
by co-workers.
Employees have
role in prevention
Policies should also set out the
obligations that all employ-
ees have to mitigate the risk of
workplace sexual harassment.
Employers should clearly out-
line workers' responsibility to
report workplace sexual harass-
ment, even if the misconduct
isn't targeted towards them, or
they're not directly involved in
the alleged incident. Bystander
reporting should be facilitated
by ensuring mechanisms are in
place to bring observations for-
ward. Containing inappropriate
behaviour requires a team effort,
and when employees under-
stand that they might face disci-
plinary action for not doing their
part, the odds of compliance
tend to increase dramatically.
But part of taking workplace
sexual harassment seriously
means also investing the nec-
essary resources to adequately
conduct comprehensive investi-
gations. One of the most avoid-
able sexual harassment pitfalls
relates to the risks associated
with conducting workplace in-
vestigations internally. Because
so few organizations have the
internal resources to manage the
task effectively, the majority that
attempt an investigation on their
own learn when it's far too late
that their efforts fail to comply
with legal requirements or ac-
cepted best practices.
Unless an employer or its HR
department has the experience
and expertise to manage an in-
vestigation on its own, the orga-
nization should be prepared to
seek assistance from a third-par-
ty HR consultant or employment
lawyer to either provide guid-
ance or to conduct the investiga-
tion on a third-party basis. That
may not only be an effective way
to ensure that an investigation
is conducted appropriately, but
may also be advisable because
third parties tend to be far more
objective as they have no direct
ties to the organization.
We've seen multiple cases
where management feel their
culture is healthy and respect-
ful, but employees complain in
exit interviews that harassment
is widespread and pervasive.
Maybe some organizations are
free from sexual impropriety
and unacceptable behaviour, but
chances are that almost every
leadership team will be forced, at
some point, to respond to an in-
cident of alleged misconduct. It
pays to be proactive, understand
the risk associated with ignoring
tell-tale signs or risky practices,
and be ready to respond in a way
that protects employees, the or-
ganization's workplace culture,
its brand, and bottom-line per-
formance.
For more information see:
• Doyle v Zochem Inc., 2017
CarswellOnt 1733 (Ont. C.A.).
Laura Williams is the founder
and principal of Williams HR
Law, a human resources law
firm in Markham, Ont., serv-
ing employers exclusively. She
can be reached at (905) 205-
0496 or lwilliams@william-
shrlaw.com.
Acknowledging < pg. 5
