Workplace Violence, Bullying and Harassment stop at Bill 168
Conflict Matters by Cecil Norman, B.Sc. MA

Is your employer Bill 168 compliant? On June 15, 2010, Bill 168, the Occupational Health and Safety Amendment Act (Violence and Harassment in the workplace) 2009, comes into effect.

Bill 168 requires employers to develop comprehensive policies to address workplace violence and harassment and to assess the risk of violence in their workplaces.

Bill 168 obligates employers to post in a spot visible to all employees, written policy on workplace violence and harassment. The policy must contain how the employer will address or resolve violence and harassment incidents in its workplace.

Bill 168 aims at empowering employees with steps to report harassment and violence incidents and act as a deterrent for perpetrators.

Bill 168 requires employers to treat harassment based on non-protected grounds in the same manner as harassment based on the Human Rights Code protected grounds.

Employers who do not have a violence and workplace harassment policy posted in their workplaces by June 15, 2010, will be liable for breaking the law under Bill 168.

Employers must ensure that their written violence and workplace harassment policy fulfills all the requirements set out by Bill 168. It will serve employers well if they start with a collaborative risk assessment by a diverse group of employees from various branches or members of a joint health and safety committee.

While it is important that a written workplace harassment and violence policy be comprehensive, it is equally important that the policy is easy to read and understand by the employees. The employer is required to train its employees on the written policy.

The Ministry of Labour Inspectors have the power under Bill 168 to visit workplaces to ensure compliance and satisfy that the employees understand the company's position on violence and workplace harassment. A good written policy is one that many employees find easy to read, understand and remember.

Under Bill 168, a threat of workplace violence could be either a statement or a behaviour that is interpreted by a worker as a threat to exercise physical force against the worker in the workplace.

Workplace violence is the exercise of physical force by a person against a worker in a workplace that causes or could cause physical injury to a worker; an attempt to exercise physical force against a worker in a workplace that could cause physical injury to a worker; a statement or behaviour that is reasonable for a worker to interpret as a threat to exercise physical force against the worker, in a workplace, that could cause physical injury to the worker.

There must be physical force, an attempt to exercise physical force or a statement or behaviour that could be interpreted as a threat to exercise physical force to be workplace violence.

Workplace harassment is a course of vexatious comment or conduct against a worker in a workplace that is known or ought reasonably to be known to be unwelcome.

Workplace bullying or abusive conduct is conduct by an employer or employee in the workplace, done with malice that a reasonable person would find hostile, offensive and unrelated to an employer's legitimate business interests.

Workplace bullying or abusive conduct includes, but is not limited to, derogatory remarks, insults and epithets, threatening, intimidating and humiliating verbal or physical conduct, gratuitous sabotage, undermining of a person's work performance, offensive jokes, physical assault, social ostracism, smear campaigns, spreading malicious rumours, character assassination, quick to criticise and slow to praise, unfairly being passed over for promotion, denial of training opportunities, taking credit for someone else's work, undermining behaviour, being frequently threatened with dismissal, unfairly treated, escalation, power disparity and attributed intent.

Workplace bullying or abusive conduct is the tendency to use persistent aggressive or unreasonable behaviour against an employee. Workplace bullying may be verbal, nonverbal or physical.

Workplace bullying or abusive work environment is a workplace where an employee is subjected to abusive conduct that is so severe that it causes physical harm to the employee.

Workplace bullying or abusive conduct has a negative effect upon the workplace. Bill 168 encourages employers to stop the bullying of employees.

Under Bill 168, employers are required to assess the risks of workplace violence that may arise from the nature of the workplace, the type of work or the conditions of work.

Employers must take into consideration common risks at other similar workplaces and risks specific to the employer's workplace when conducting risk assessment.

Employers are required to frequently reassess the risks of violence to protect workers. The requirements for employers include: risk assessment, written policies and implementation programs, extension of existing health and safety obligations to workplace violence, domestic violence in the workplace, and disclose risks of violence to employees.

Employers are required to report and provide detailed information on a workplace violence incident to their employees' safety committees within four days of its occurrence. However, employers are limited to disclosing only personal information that is reasonably necessary to protect employees from physical injury. Bill 168 limits the disclosure only to personal information that is reasonably necessary to protect employees from physical injury.

Bill 168 requires an employer to take all reasonable precautions in the circumstances for the protection of the employee if a domestic violence situation would likely expose an employee to physical injury in the workplace and the employer becomes aware or ought to reasonably be aware of the situation. Different requirements apply to workplaces of five or fewer employees.

Employees must report incidents or threats of workplace violence to the employer. Employees must demonstrate exemplary conduct and personal integrity. Employees must communicate effectively at work. Employees must treat other employees with dignity and respect.

Bill 168 permits an employee to refuse to work or do a particular job where she or he has reason to believe that workplace violence is likely to endanger her or him. Bill 168 allows for a regulation to specify situations that define when an unsafe condition is inherent in the job or is a normal condition of employment.

Cecil Norman is Director, Legal and Conflict Resolution, with Human Rights Advisory Services (HRAS). Cecil's column, Conflict Matters, appears monthly. You may reach him directly at Email: cnorman@hras.ca.