What Is Considered Workplace Harassment and What Is Not

By Laurel Woodhouse, Health and Safety Manager

What is Considered Workplace Harassment?

Workplace Harassment includes:

  • Verbally abusive behaviour
  • Yelling, insults, ridicule, name calling, and/or jokes/ remarks that demean, intimidate, or offend
  • Workplace pranks, vandalism, bullying and/or hazing
  • Gossiping or spreading malicious rumours
  • Bullying
  • Displaying or circulating offensive pictures or materials in print or electronic form
  • Repeating offensive or intimidating phone calls or inappropriate advances, suggestions or requests
  • Providing only demeaning or trivial tasks in place of normal job duties
  • Undermining a worker’s efforts by setting impossible goals, with short deadlines and deliberately withholding information that would enable a person to do their job
  • Sabotaging someone else’s work

What is NOT Considered Workplace Harassment?

Reasonable action or conduct by an employer, manager or supervisor that is part of his or her normal work function would not normally be considered workplace harassment.

Examples include:

  • Changes in work assignment or schedule
  • Measures to correct performance deficiencies
  • Imposing discipline for workplace infractions
  • Requesting medical documents in support of an absence from work
  • Enforcement of dress code
  • Difference of opinion or minor disagreements between co-workers would also not generally be considered workplace harassment

How to Report?

Reporting How to Bring Forward Concerns/Complaints under this Policy

  • Employees can contact a Manager, Supervisor, Lead, Site Supervisor, Patrol Supervisor, or Human Resources representative
  • If the employee’s complaint is against their own supervisor or manager, then they may escalate their complaint directly to Human Resources
  • This procedure applies even where employees believe that someone not employed by ASP is in violation of this policy

Reporting Concerns and/or Complaints

A claim of a breach of this Policy may be made by an employee in writing or verbally.

Management to Notify Human Resources through ASP’s incident reporting system (i-sight) If a manager receives a complaint or becomes aware that a person in the workplace may have acted contrary to this Policy, the manager must promptly report the complaint or incident to Human Resources.

Note: If the allegations are against Human Resources, the manager can escalate the complaint as appropriate (i.e., report to the department head).

Investigation

  1. Any reported allegations of harassment, violence, discrimination, or reprisal will be investigated fairly, promptly, thoroughly, and impartially by the Human Resources department or another appropriate party.
  2. The investigator will interview the complainant, the respondent, all potential witnesses (where possible) and any other individual who the investigator deems to be relevant to the complaint.
  3. Upon completion of the investigation, the complainant and respondent will be informed of the results of the investigation.
  4. If the complaint is substantiated, persons found to have engaged in a violation of this Policy will be issued appropriate disciplinary action up to and including termination of employment for cause.
  5. If the investigation reveals that an individual has brought a concern forward in bad faith, the individual may be subject to discipline, up to and including dismissal for cause.

Confidentiality
All records of the investigation will be kept confidential. The investigation documents, including this report should not be disclosed unless necessary to investigate an incident or complaint of workplace harassment or violence, take corrective action or otherwise as required by law.

  • Category: Health and Safety News, Human Resources