What is Bill 168?
In December 2009, the Ontario Legislature passed amendments to the Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA) to help protect workers against workplace violence and harassment. The legislation came into effect June 15, 2010.Don’t be like the many employers who have fallen behind in their compliance with this new law!
This legislation entails new obligations for all employers requiring them to address workplace violence / harassment allegations that may occur in the workplace by:
- Preparing policies with respect to workplace violence and harassment and reviewing them at least annually
- Developing and maintaining a program to implement the policies including the following procedures:
- How to summon immediate assistance when workplace violence occurs or is likely to occur
- How to report incidents of workplace violence or harassment to the employer or supervisor
- How the employer will investigate and deal with incidents and complaints of workplace violence or harassment
- Providing information and training on the contents of the workplace harassment and workplace policies and programs
- Conducting assessments and reassessments of the risks of workplace violence
- Advising the workers or the health and safety representative of the results of the assessments
Mutual Consensus advocates that an Employer use a professional Neutral Third Party to investigate workplace violence/ harassment allegations for the following reasons;
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It has been our experience that the lack of a professional, transparent, timely investigation that culminates in a well written investigation report to management is the single largest cause of grievances in unionized workplaces.
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The vast majority of unionized workplace grievances stem from Management Teams who internally investigate violence or harassment disputes or allegations, internally. This results in a flawed report with improper facts being considered by the decision makers of that workplace, resulting in wrong or inappropriate decisions being made.
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Without a timely investigation and report the management team runs the risk of being viewed as condoning the actions or worse the complaining party believes that management has forgotten about the complaint.
Inaction can sometimes be worse than making a bad decision.
At Mutual Consensus we have a professional group of investigators who only focus is to deliver your management team a complete and timely set of facts in a well written report. This way justice and fairness will not only be done, but it will also be seen to be done!!!
