CANADA Dismissal for Threat Void Where Employer Relied on Outdated Discipline
An Ontario labor arbitrator just allowed an employee’s grievance after the employer terminated him for swearing, refusing to leave the workplace and threatening the vice-president with a shovel. The company submitted that it had just cause to dismiss the employee because he was insubordinate and engaged in workplace violence by using a shovel in a threatening manner during the altercation. The employer also relied upon the employee’s prior incidents of discipline to justify the termination. However, the employer did not follow its workplace violence and harassment policies and procedures under Ontario’s Occupational Health and Safety Act, nor did they hold a proper investigation into the incident, discuss the matter with the employee, talk to any witnesses or document anything. Consequently, the employee was reinstated and fully compensated. Employers have to follow the policies and procedures they have in place, in particular, on workplace violence and harassment prevention, and discipline before making a rash decision to terminate employees.
To read more, click here
Study Reveals Negative Impact of Bullying Culture Working in an environment where bullying goes on is enough to make many employees think about quitting, a new study suggests. Canadian researchers have found that nurses not bullied directly, but who worked in an environment where workplace bullying occurred, felt a stronger urge to quit than those actually being bullied. These findings on ‘ambient’ bullying have significant implica- tions for organizations, as well as contributing a new statistical approach to the field. The authors theorize that although individuals may experience moral indignation at others being bullied, it is perceived as being even more unfair when others are bullied and they are not. “This is potentially interesting because we tend to assume that direct, personal experiences should be more influential upon employ- ees than indirect experiences only witnessed or heard about in a second-hand fashion,” said corresponding author, Marjan Housh- mand. “Yet our study identifies a case where direct and indirect experiences have a similarly strong relationship to turnover inten- tions.”
To read more, click here
B.C. Becomes Fifth Province to Introduce Anti-bullying Legislation The British Columbia government recently passed amendments to Bill 14, Workers Compensation Amendment Act, 2011, to come into effect on July 1, 2012. The Minister of Labour had introduced the amendments in May, proposing further changes to the Workers Compensation Act to address the issue of workplace bullying. The new amendments clarify that a worker is entitled to compensation for a “mental disorder”, as opposed to mental stress, if that mental disorder is either: (1) a reaction to one or more traumatic events arising out of and in the course of the worker’s employment, or (2) predominantly caused by a significant work- related stressor, including bullying and harassment, or a cumulative series of such stressors, arising out of and in the course of the worker’s employment. British Columbia is the fifth province to pass anti-workplace bullying legislation and these amendments are intended to provide a more streamlined and simple method for targeting psychological harassment and bullying in B.C. workplaces. It is prudent for employers to revisit their workplace policies to ensure that bullying and workplace harassment are being adequately addressed in order to ensure statutory compliance and mitigate against the risk of these claims in the workplace.
To read more, click here
WorkSafeBC Proposes Workplace Violence, Harassment Policy British Columbia's workers' compensation board is developing a discussion paper and draft occupational health and safety policy on workplace bullying and harassment prevention. According to a statement from WorkSafeBC, the move is in line with a pledge from Margaret MacDiarmid, minister of labor, citizens’ services and open government, to prevent workplace bullying and harassment in conjunction with amendments being made to the Workers Compensation Act (Bill 14) relating to compensation for work-related mental disorders. The compensation board will also develop an occupational health and safety tool kit for preventing bullying and harassment in the workplace, which will be available in the fall of 2012. The proposed tool kit, similar to the Domestic Violence in the Workplace tool kit launched in March 2012, will aim to assist workers and employers in understanding, preventing and address- ing bullying and harassment in the workplace.
To read more, click here
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22