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Serious insight for serious situations.

Serious insight for serious situations.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

“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.

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

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.

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