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- Title
Just Going Through the Motions? Regulating Personal Harassment under Ontario’s Occupational Health and Safety Act.
- Authors
Sobat, Erin
- Abstract
Over the past decade, Ontario’s Occupational Health and Safety Act has been amended to require that employers investigate all complaints of workplace harassment. However, the legislation does not actually guarantee workers the right to a harassment-free workplace. This article evaluates the OHSA’s protections for non-unionized victims of personal (non-discriminatory) harassment. Situating this law within the broader conflict between safety and profit, it questions the assumption that employers will voluntarily address harassment issues through mandated internal prevention and investigation policies. In support of this position, the author considers Ministry of Labour data obtained through Freedom of Information requests, which reveals widespread non-compliance with the new law. Ontario Labour Relations Board decisions confirm that worker anti-harassment rights are procedural in nature: there is no entitlement to substantive review of either initial complaints or employer investigations. This leaves many workers without statutory recourse when an employer’s response to harassment is unsatisfactory or non-existent. To address this continued regulatory gap, Ontario should, in the author’s view, legislate a right to a harassment-free workplace, drawing on the lessons of Québec’s longstanding prohibition on workplace psychological harassment.
- Subjects
ONTARIO; INDUSTRIAL hygiene laws; HARASSMENT; EMPLOYEE rights; HARASSMENT laws
- Publication
Canadian Labour & Employment Law Journal, 2022, Vol 24, Issue 1, p31
- ISSN
1196-7889
- Publication type
Article