by Lorraine Hewlett
There have been so many news stories recently about workers who have been experiencing harassment in the workplace.
In the United States, many actresses and actors have spoken out publicly about the sexual harassment that they have experienced in their profession. Many of the perpetrators have lost their employment. Locally, many allegations have been made by current and former employees of the City of Yellowknife about harassment they experienced at work.
Everyone should be able to work in a safe and healthy workplace. Workplace harassment is NEVER okay. Workplace harassment is unwelcome conduct from a boss, co-worker, group of co-workers, vendor, or customer whose actions, communication, or behavior mocks, demeans, puts down, disparages, or ridicules an employee. Physical assaults, threats, and intimidation are severe forms of harassment and bullying. Harassment may also include offensive jokes, name-calling, offensive nicknames, pornographic images on a laptop or cell phone, and offensive pictures or objects.
The employer has a duty to prevent harassment and a duty to provide the information, instruction, training and supervision that is necessary to protect the health and safety of workers. It is essential for both workers and employers to know that workplace harassment can violate not just one but two pieces of legislation in the NWT.
The NWT Human Rights Act states in Article 14: “No person shall, on the basis of a prohibited ground of discrimination, harass any individual or class of individuals … in matters related to employment.” The Act defines the word “harass” as meaning “to engage in a course of vexatious comment or conduct that is known to be unwelcome by the individual or class.”
The NWT Safety Act Regulations state in Article 34 that harassment means “a course of vexatious comment or conduct at a work site that (a) is known or ought reasonably to be known to be unwelcome; and (b) constitutes a threat at the work site to the health or safety of a worker.”
The regulations further explain that harassment can consist of repeated conduct, comments, displays, actions or gestures; or a single, serious occurrence of conduct, or a single, serious comment, display, action or gesture, that has a lasting, harmful effect on the worker’s health or safety.
In the NWT, the employer is legally obliged to develop and implement:
- a written policy that includes a definition of harassment that is consistent with the Regulations;
- a statement that each worker is entitled to work free of harassment;
- a commitment that the employer will make every reasonable effort to ensure that workers are not subjected to harassment;
- a commitment that the employer will take corrective action respecting any individual who subjects any worker to harassment;
- an explanation of how harassment complaints may be brought to the attention of the Employer;
- a statement that the employer will not disclose the name of a complainant or an alleged harasser or the circumstances relating to the complaint to a person unless disclosure is necessary for the purposes of investigating the complaint or taking corrective action with respect to the complaint, or required by law;
- a description of the procedure that the employer will follow to inform a complainant and alleged harasser of the results of an investigation; and
- a statement that the Employer’s harassment policy is not intended to discourage or prevent a complainant from exercising other legal rights.
Employers can avoid harassment complaints when they create the expectation in their workplace that all employees will treat each other with respect, collegiality, fairness, honesty, and integrity. Employers can consciously create a workplace culture in which this environment becomes the workplace norm.