Harassment in the Workplace

Protect your business: No organization is too small to not need a policy in place

It is a good feeling spending your workday being productive alongside people that make you feel welcome and valued. So, too, is going home knowing what you did and how you spoke throughout the workday was helpful, not harmful. Not every day or every workplace is like that, but there are tools to guide employers, supervisors and employees towards maintaining that type of work environment.

People don’t always agree, understand or appreciate one another. How some people behave and speak when there are disagreements, misconceptions or biases can be considered harassment.

Doing or saying something that insults, ridicules, threatens or sabotages someone you work with – or who works for you – can put you in a position of uncertainty and risk. That is true for employers, supervisors and employees.

Folk recommends workplaces search online for the many government resources available to guide them on developing a harassment policy. Having such a policy is required under the Saskatchewan Employment Act and the Occupational Health and Safety Regulations.

That risk can be handled through a harassment policy that links with a policy on employee discipline. Making those policies available to employees and providing training so everyone in your workplace recognizes how to appropriately navigate interpersonal situations can also help.

Erin Folk guides workplaces and leaders looking to prevent workplace harassment or needing to handle complaints. As an investigator and facilitator with Folk Consulting, she works with governments, private business, non-profit organizations, First Nations and other groups to provide advice and services related to harassment prevention and investigations.

She has also supported her husband’s earthmoving and landscaping business, Folk Construction. Her experience through the company has showed her first-hand examples of questionable workplace behaviour in the industry and the awareness employees have of their rights.

“In years past, if an employee was not being treated well on a job site, they might have just walked away, quit and got a job somewhere else,” said Folk. “That’s maybe not the case anymore. The employer has that legal duty to ensure the safety [of its employees].”

Harassment is inappropriate conduct, comments, displays, actions or gestures that the harasser knows or ought to reasonably know would cause an individual to be humiliated or intimidated. It is inappropriate to intimidate, humiliate or threaten another employee so their psychological or physical wellbeing is damaged, causing a threat to their health and safety. Additionally, if the behaviour and conduct relate to another person’s race, creed, religion, colour, sex, sexual orientation, marital status, family status, disability, physical size or weight, age, nationality, ancestry or place of origin, it is considered a breach of Human Rights legislation, and is considered an illegal act, as well as workplace harassment.

“We all want to come home at the end of the day having put in a good day’s work and not had to put up with abusive behaviour and discriminatory behaviour,” said Folk. “Everyone wants to be respected for the work that they do.”

To take a first step towards preventing and dealing with harassment as an employer, Folk recommends workplaces search online for the many government resources available to guide them on developing a harassment policy. Having such a policy is required under the Saskatchewan Employment Act and the Occupational Health and Safety Regulations. Employers should seek assistance from subject matter experts if they feel uncertain about creating their own policy and procedure.

“Under occupational health and safety legislation, you see that the employer, the manager, the supervisor and the employee all have listed responsibilities when it comes to safety in the workplace,” said Folk, who explains that the more responsibility an employee has in an organization, the higher the threshold is for what is expected of them.

“Psychological safety is a component of the safety of the employee, equally as important as the physical safety of an employee,” she said.

A harassment policy must contain a definition of harassment, which Folk says can be taken directly by employers in this province from the Saskatchewan Employment Act. The policy should also include a statement by the employer that harassment is not acceptable or tolerated and expresses the employer’s commitment to do everything reasonable to prevent harassment and act when an employee feels they have been the subject of workplace harassment.

But Folk says a more robust policy can benefit an organization. Including a process that outlines how complaints can be brought forward and managed, appropriate procedural steps for mediation or investigation, and how the complainant and alleged harasser will be informed of the outcome of an investigation should also be described.

“The policy is there to protect the employees and to protect the employer. The policy is supposed to give clear guidelines that discourage inappropriate behaviours, so you want to have very clear definitions,” said Folk, who encourages employers to link their harassment policy to their discipline policy. “Not only are you protecting your employees by saying this is not tolerated or allowed, but you also have mechanisms under which, if this inappropriate behaviour happened and is found to have occurred, the employer has the ability to take action under the discipline policy however the employer sees fit, under the circumstances – whether that is a reprimand, guidance, education or dismissal.”

When a complaint is made, an investigation looks at whether the allegation occurred as it was alleged and, if it did, if it is contrary to the policy in place. That’s what makes sound definitions important, according to the legislation.

“We can find harassment based on a vague definition, but where does it go from there? Now what does the policy say about how the employer can deal with that? If you have a very vague definition and limited policy, you might also have a limited ability to apply discipline,” said Folk.

The risk of a vague policy to the employer in a situation where an employee has harassed another is not being able to dismiss an employee with cause, if training and other progressive discipline steps have not rectified the behaviour. An employee who continues their harassing behaviour in the workplace can leave the employer vulnerable to a civil action, known as an employer’s vicarious liability for the conduct of their employees.

Having a policy can mitigate an employer’s responsibility. Not having a policy or allowing an employee to continue their behaviour unchecked can be an aggravating circumstance that could lead to a more significant financial remedy being awarded to the victim of workplace harassment by an adjudicator if the matter is elevated to a tribunal.

An employer who can point to a sufficient policy and training aimed at preventing harassment may have an adjudicator consider that as a mitigating factor and find the employer less liable for the conduct of their employee.

An organization’s policy does not have to be hundreds of pages long, but Folk recommends it being more than a single page in a safety manual and employee handbook. The policy needs to be informative and proscriptive. It should serve as a resource to staff, supervisors and managers, so those accountable for addressing harassment in a workplace understand their responsibilities and the processes. Proactively having this in place and making everyone in the organization aware of it can help minimize disruption to the organization when a situation arises because the expectations have already been made clear.

Employers who feel some people today are simply too sensitive and discredit complaints of employees as insignificant or frivolous assume a significant risk to their business. The financial and human costs of workplace harassment are high. Staff turnover, lost productivity, bad publicity and damage to reputation, as well as costs for paying for a mediator or investigator, have a considerable effect on an organization’s bottom line.

“You are putting yourself in the crosshairs of a lawsuit and/or a lot of bad publicity if someone comes forward with a complaint,” said Folk. “There is a lot of human and financial cost to allowing harassment to occur.”

Being at work means dealing with other people. How you behave towards and around one another can contribute to whether co-workers feel more or less included on the team and at your workplace.

A workplace with people who harm others – psychologically or physically – through their words or actions will eventually be held responsible, Folk says, because workers are increasingly aware of their rights and will act to protect those rights and their wellbeing. Demonstrating respect for those you work with is important to keep a workplace productive, effective and inviting.