The Respectful Workplace
In the Canadian OH&S News recently, Feb 28th, 2017, 13 members of the Calgary Police Service filed complaints of bullying and harassment against their employer. This complaint followed a very public resignation of Const. Jen Magnus, a 14-year veteran of the CPS, while at a commission meeting on Jan 31 due to harassment. Calgary Police chief has stated he is taking this as a good opportunity to address the alleged problem within their police force.
Harassment & Bullying in the workplace is against the law! Saskatchewan OH&S law clearly outlines what harassment is as follows:
Saskatchewan Employment Act 3-1(l) “harassment” means any inappropriate conduct, comment, display, action or gesture by a person:
(i) that either:
(A) is based on race, creed, religion, colour, sex, sexual orientation, marital status, family status, disability, physical size or weight, age, nationality, ancestry or place of origin; or
(B) subject to subsections (4) and (5), adversely affects the worker’s psychological or physical well-being and that the person knows or ought reasonably to know would cause a worker to be humiliated or intimidated; and
(ii) that constitutes a threat to the health or safety of the worker;
(4) To constitute harassment for the purposes of paragraph (1)(l)(i)(B), either of the following must be established:
(a) repeated conduct, comments, displays, actions or gestures;
(b) a single, serious occurrence of conduct, or a single, serious comment, display, action or gesture, that has a lasting, harmful effect on the worker.
(5) For the purposes of paragraph (1)(l)(i)(B), harassment does not include any reasonable action that is taken by an employer, or a manager or supervisor employed or engaged by an employer, relating to the management and direction of the employer’s workers or the place of employment.
Every workplace should have policies in place surrounding workplace harassment and procedures to follow in the case that a worker needs to put in a complaint.
Every worker has the right to speak up and be safe in the workplace.
For more information about what a ‘Respectful Workplace’ includes visit the SHSA website and click on our eCampus course catalog where you can view the outline of ‘The Respectful Workplace’. This course includes:
- Education about rights and responsibilities in the workplace
- Identification of attitudes and behaviours which contribute to a respectful workplace as well as those that are inappropriate
- Specific types of behavior including discrimination, harassment and personal harassment (bullying) are defined and examined.
- Emphasis is on developing appropriate workplace behaviours and knowing how to respond to incidents involving inappropriate responses to the behaviours of others.
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