Workplace Discrimination Archives

Vos politiques sont-elles utiles? Parcours à travers une politique type de respect en milieu de travail

November 5, 2024 | By Christine Thomlinson, | By Lori-Ann Green, | By Frédérick J. Doucet

Dans la plupart des juridictions canadiennes, les employeurs sont tenus d’adopter des politiques visant à traiter d’enjeux comme le harcèlement, la discrimination et la violence en milieu de travail. Notre travail d’enquête nous mène à lire beaucoup de ces politiques de « respect au travail » et il appert que la grande majorité d’entre elles sont clairement rédigées dans le but de se conformer aux exigences législatives.

Too old, too young, and too in-between – no age is the right age for working women

November 4, 2024 | By Heather Shields

If you have encountered an allegation of ageism while conducting a workplace investigation, chances are that it involved an older employee who was passed over in favour of someone younger.

How do policies help? A journey through a typical respectful workplace policy

August 14, 2024 | By Christine Thomlinson, | By Lori-Ann Green

Most Canadian jurisdictions require employers to have policies that address issues like workplace harassment, discrimination, and violence. In our investigation practice, we read many of these “respect at work” policies, and the overwhelming majority of them are clearly written to specifically comply with legislative requirements.

When is enough enough?! Salanguit v. Parq Vancouver tells us when a complaint has been reasonably handled

May 21, 2024 | By Chantel Levy

We often hear horror stories about workplace complaints being handled poorly — instances where employers don’t act, investigators miss the mark, and so on and so forth. I’ll now be the bearer of good news and share what the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal (“Tribunal”) recently found to be reasonable handling of a complaint in Salanguit v. Parq Vancouver and another.

Can jokes amount to harassment if no one told the jokester to stop?

October 20, 2023 | By Zoë King

“How was I to know they were offended by my jokes? They never told me they were uncomfortable.”

Jokes between colleagues can be an important contributor to positive workplace culture. Unfortunately, some employees are subjected to jokes and teasing that is offensive or demeaning.

Dealing with “poisoned workplace” complaints

October 3, 2023

I recently investigated a case where I needed to assess whether the discriminatory conduct that I found contributed to a poisoned work environment (PWE). This topic was explored in a previous blog post by RT, but I felt it was time for a more recent and in-depth look.

Third-Party Complaints of Workplace Harassment or Discrimination

July 12, 2023 | By Alison Griggs

In 2017, Rubin Thomlinson conducted the Workplace Bystander Survey to gather insight into workplace bystanders (individuals who personally witnessed, heard of, or heard about harassment and discrimination in their workplaces).

“Accent translation” software? It’s time to flip the script on linguistic hierarchies

December 20, 2022

Language discrimination is a harmful reality in many workplaces, and employers need to be proactive in not only preventing it, but in celebrating and promoting language diversity. In a world where 281 million people live in countries other than where they were born, and with a record number of Canadians (13%) reporting a first language other than English or French, this issue is more important than ever. The rise of controversial new voice-altering technology, which perpetuates existing hierarchies about who speaks English with the “right” accent and who does not, adds to this urgency.

Serious insight for serious situations.